Aftertale
by schmicklet
Summary: Post true pacifist ending (SO SPOILER ALERT). There are still some unanswered questions after the monsters are freed. How do humans interact with them? Why does sans have a lab? Who is W.D. Gaster? And why did Frisk go to the underground in the first place? The story continues where the games leaves off, watch all the characters you love adapt to their new lifestyle.
1. Chapter 1

It was so beautiful. It was better than any monster could imagine. The trees were so green, the sky was splashed with pinks and yellows, everything seemed so… real. Vivid. The prophecy was true, the angel came from above and freed the monsters from their prison. It was a new era.

sans, Papyrus, Toriel, Asgore, Alphys, Undyne and Frisk all stared and watched the sun fall beyond the horizon, a wave of relief swept over them as they realized it was all over. They were free.

"Oh my…" Toriel gawked at the view before her.

"Isn't it beautiful everyone?" Asgore asked.

"W-wow, it's even better than on TV. WAY better. Better than I ever imagined!" Alphys exclaimed excitedly.

"Frisk, you LIVE with this? The sunlight is so nice… and the air is so fresh! I really feel alive!" Undyne said as she rest her arm on Alphys' head, a huge grin spread across her face.

"SANS? WHAT'S THAT GIANT BALL?" Papyrus asked squinting at the sun, his hand shielding his eyes from the brightness.

"we call that 'the sun' my friend" sans replied.

"THAT'S THE SUN? WOWIE! I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M FINALLY MEETING THE SUN!"

Asgore took a deep breath, "I could stand here and watch this for hours…"

Toriel straightened and turned towards the group, "Yes, it is beautiful is it not? But we should really think about what comes next."

"Oh, right. Everyone… this is the beginning of a bright new future. An era of peace between humans and monsters. Frisk… I have something to ask of you, will you act as our ambassador to the humans?" Asgore kneeled down on one knee in front of Frisk. Frisk looked at all of their friends, each one smiling down on them and giving encouraging nods. Frisk looked back at Asgore with a huge smile on their face and nodded enthusiastically.

"YEAH! FRISK WILL BE THE BEST AMBASSADOR! AND I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE THE BEST MASCOT! I'LL GO MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION!" and with that Papyrus quickly walked down the path leading to the village at the base of Mt. Ebott, vanishing around one of the bends and into the trees.

"welp. someone's gotta keep him from getting into trouble," sans shrugged, "see you guys," and walked back through the entrance into the underground.

Undyne huffed, "Man, do I have to do EVERYTHING? Papyrus, wait!" Undyne sprinted in the direction Papyrus went.

"Hey! Undyne! Wait up!" Alphys ran sweating and panting, trying to keep up with Undyne.

Asgore shifted uncomfortably. "Whoops, uh, should I do something?" Toriel only glared at him. "Well, gotta go!" he called as he took his leave, whistling a cheerful tune and disappeared after the others.

"It seems everyone is quite eager to set off. Frisk… you came from this world right…? So you must have a place to return to, do you not? What will you do now?" Toriel looked at Frisk smiling softly upon them. Frisk looked down. They hadn't thought this far ahead. They had nowhere to go. Unless..

Frisk pointed at Toriel. Toriel blushed. "What? Frisk… You really are a funny child. If you had said that earlier, none of this would have happened. It is a good thing you took so long to change your mind." Toriel chuckled to herself, "well, if you really do not have any other place to go, i will do my best to take care of you, for as long as you need. All right? Now, come along. Everyone is waiting for us!" Toriel grabbed Frisk's hand and lead them down the path to the village.

As the sun fell the temperature followed and Frisk shivered occasionally. It was a long walk down to the village for Frisk. They were exhausted from fighting Flowey/Asriel and Asgore and they could really use a nap. It was dark when Toriel reached the base of the mountain, she was carrying a sleeping Frisk in her arms.

Almost every house was lit and there was a small gathering in the center of the town. Papyrus and Asgore were in the center of the gathering, Asgore's horns could be seen above the crowd as he towered over them. One voice could be heard above all others.

"AH YES! IT IS SO NICE TO MEET YOU AS WELL! I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO BEFRIENDING ALL OF YOU!" Papyrus chatted amongst the villagers, smiling and shaking hands, it seems he did make a very good first impression. "WHAT COMES NEXT? UH, WELL.. I'M NOT SURE. FRISK IS OUR AMBASSADOR! HERE THEY COME NOW!" Asgore looked at Toriel and saw Frisk was sound asleep.

"It seems our Ambassador has had a long day. I'm afraid we all have, it really was a pleasure to meet all of you, we will return in the morning after a full night's rest!" Asgore said, the crowd replied in goodbyes and goodnights to which Asgore responded individually to each and every person. Undyne and Alphys waved and the group all walked back to their homes in the underground, all except sans, who was probably back in Snowdin already sound asleep.

When they reached the entrance into the underground Asgore offered his home to Toriel and Frisk so they wouldn't have to travel all the way back to the Ruins. Toriel accepted and tucked Frisk into Chara's old room. Asgore and Toriel stayed up late talking about politics and their plan for the monsters' futures, they were still the king and queen of monsters afterall.

"Toriel, I know that you are still upset with me, and I know no amount of apologies will suffice for what I have done, but I would just like to say I truly am sorry, and I still love you. I know it will not be any time soon, but if you are willing, I would like to be a family again, it will be a new beginning on the surface, and I want to experience it, all of it, with you and Frisk by my side every step of the way." Asgore had tears threatening the edges of his eyes but he was smiling at Toriel.

Toriel looked down and glared at the ground. She began to blush. "Asgore, I currently have more important things to occupy my mind with. It will take time for me to forgive you. For now, let's not complicate things any further and focus on the layout for the town we are planning to build" she walked down the hall into the room under renovations and returned with a notebook, pencil, and reading glasses.

"Of course, I understand" was all Asgore could manage to choke out. His voice was hoarse from fighting back tears. A loud, low growl erupted from Asgore's stomach followed by a few seconds of dead silence. Asgore's face began to turn pink as he scratched the back of his head and chuckled.

"I was planning to return to the Ruins tonight to bake a pie for Frisk, I don't suppose you have the ingredients here?" Toriel asked placing the notebook on the table in the living room.

"I do indeed" Asgore replied almost too excitedly. The two walked into the kitchen together and began to make butterscotch pie, Toriel's mind was put to rest, distracted by baking, it calmed her. She loved to bake pies, especially for her children.

The room was filled with the smell of baked goods, the oven dinged and Toriel cut the pie and took a slice and walked into the room Frisk was in. They were dead asleep, snoring softly. Toriel smiled and placed the piece of pie on the floor in front of Frisk. She looked back one last time before shutting the door behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Frisk woke up the next morning from a dreamless night, but well rested. Their stomach ached and rumbled and they happily reached for the pie sitting next to their bed. Frisk devoured it in no time and was instantly filled with determination thinking about meeting the humans in the village and introducing the monsters. Most of the people who lived in that village were drawn by Mt. Ebott and its mystery, so they were all thrilled to see the monsters arrive and were more than friendly. _Not all humans would be so kind_ , Frisk thought.

They jumped out of bed and ran out of the room in search for Toriel and Asgore. Frisk found them in the throne room, Toriel's throne was next to Asgore's, the white sheet was nowhere to be found. Toriel was reading what looked like a joke book, and Asgore was drawing something in a notebook.

"It won't take long to build with all of these monsters and their magic. I was thinking we could start a temporary settlement around the mountain before the village at the base. We can branch out from there after we meet with the human leaders and figure out all of the specifics, but for now I know everyone is excited to explore the surface-Oh!" Asgore turned and saw Frisk standing in the doorway rubbing the last of sleep out of their eyes. "Hello, small one! Good morning! We have a big day ahead of us, are you ready to meet the village today?" Frisk yawned and nodded. "Good! Your friends are waiting for you just outside, when you are ready we can all walk down together."

Frisk grabbed Asgore and Toriel's hands and pulled them to the door. Toriel and Asgore chuckled and followed Frisk.

Outside was sans and Papyrus, Frisk asked where Undyne and Alphys were.

"alphys says she's real dino _saur_ -y but she doesn't like crowds and socializing. i just think a fish's got her tongue" sans winked at Frisk. Frisk grinned up at sans and Papyrus groaned.

"THERE'S NO TIME FOR YOUR LAME JOKES, SANS, I MUST BEFRIEND EVERY HUMAN IN THAT TOWN!" Papyrus picked up sans and put him on his shoulders, "I WILL LEAD THE WAY, FOLLOW ME!" The group walked back into Asgore's throne room and back to the entrance (or exit) to the surface. They all squinted at the sun as it was rising, it was about 10 in the morning. Their eyes adjusted and they marched down the path, it was actually only about three miles until they reached the village, but then again the barrier was at the center of the mountain, not the top.

All of the townsfolk saw the monsters approaching the village and ran to greet them. A tall lanky man walked up to Frisk especially and outstretched his hand, "Hello, I am the mayor of this town, I am under the assumption that you are Frisk, I was informed you would be the ambassador between monsters and humans?" Frisk took his hand and give it a small shake. "I will have you know that this mountain is protected for your sake, it technically belongs to the monsters. You are free to do what you wish with that land, now if you are to build on my land, I simply ask that you talk it over with me first, i'm sure that we can work out some sort of agreement." Frisk nodded and Asgore showed the mayor his layout of the town, they had planned to build on the mountain anyways. Toriel began talking to him about how to talk to the human leader and where to go from here, she was nodding thoughtfully at his response.

Frisk got bored and walked over to where Papyrus was playing with some human children much younger than Frisk. It seemed as if they were playing tag, Frisk shrugged their shoulders and asked if they could join. sans started to walk towards Frisk, a huge grin on his face and his hands in his pockets.

sans stopped at Frisk's side, "join? how can you join when you're already-" sans slapped Frisk's back "-it!" he finished and he took off running, the small group of children scattered away avoiding Frisk and giggling. The kids played for a few hours until they were all exhausted, and the village kids went in to take naps, their mothers silently thanking the skeleton brothers and Frisk for tiring them out. Asgore and Toriel said goodbye to the mayor and met up with them.

"Come little one, I have informed Alphys and Undyne that we are to start building houses

today for all of the monsters, they have already started without us." Asgore took Frisk's hand and lead them up the mountain, there was a variety of different monsters exploring the forest around them, using magic to cut down trees and start clearing an area for a town while also collecting wood to build the houses. Undyne was punching trees and suplexing boulders while Alphys was looking at some papers mumbling to herself and instructing Mettaton to place the logs in a rough structure of a rather long house. It looked like it was going to have two stories when it was finished.

"Oh h-hello, I hope you don't mind, I-I already went over the structure of the town with everyone that is h-helping today, they are mostly ch-choosing where they want to live on their own, but sticking to th-this outline you gave me" Alphys said mostly to Asgore, "I-I'm also working on rebuilding my lab, there are a lo-lot of things here that I know nothing about, I'm excited to study everything!" Alphys explained excitedly.

Undyne gave a toothy smile and noogied Alphys, "And I get to live with this adorable dweeb!"

"That is great Alphys, thank you so much for getting started without me, at this rate, the town will be built in no more than a week! Oh, ah Frisk, Toriel? I think we need to work out some living arrangements," Asgore turned to the two, Toriel was looking down at Frisk. Frisk put their finger up to their chin and tilted their head slightly up in thought. They then pushed Toriel next to Asgore and took a step back and pointed at the both of them.

"You want us all to live.. together?" Toriel asked, her cheeks turned a light pink under her fur. Frisk nodded and smiled. "Well, I suppose we can try that, I would like my own room for the time being however." Toriel responded, looking to Asgore for approval.

"That's a wonderful idea Frisk! And Toriel, of course we will build another room for you." Asgore smiled overwhelmed with excitement and joy.

The skeleton brothers were clearing out a space next to where Toriel and Asgore had begun to build. Papyrus was throwing bones at trees making them fall over and using his magic to stack the logs onto one another. sans was leaning up against a tree with his eyes closed. "SANS! YOU LAZY BONES! COME HELP ME BUILD OUR HOUSE!" Papyrus stomped his feet on the ground but sans didn't wake up.

Toriel, Asgore, and Frisk would be living in the middle of the skeleton brothers and the lab. Their house looked exactly the same as both Toriel and Asgore's house, a small kitchen to the left of a living room with three bedrooms lined up in the hallway on the right. When the sun began to set it looked as if half of the town had their houses' walls built. Some monsters were pitching tents to stay the night near their new homes, others walked up the path to return to their home in the underground until they were finished.

Asgore was putting the last couple of logs Frisk proudly hauled over on the house before sans and Papyrus walked up to them. sans let out a yawn and stretched, "'s been a long day, huh, kid? Howzabout we take one of my shortcuts back to Grillbz and grab something to eat?"

Papyrus rolled his eyes "SANS HOW CAN YOU BE TIRED WHEN ALL YOU DID WAS SLEEP?"

"heh. you're right bro, I should be able to do that with my eyes closed" sans winked at Frisk and they giggled and grabbed san's hand and nodded. Sans lead them up the path and around a bend.

"Is it alright if I stay with you in the castle again tonight?" Toriel asked Asgore half-hesitantly. "It has been a long day and I have used a lot of magic, I am very tired" she chuckled a little to herself.

"Golly, Tori! You know me, everyone and anyone is welcome at my house! I have a sign that says so, you know that!" He laughed heartily and the three of them walked around the skeleton of their village helping the monsters finish up their houses for the night.

sans lead Frisk off of the path and into the trees. Frisk felt a small gust of air and blinked and they were outside of Grillbz. It was closed. "should've guessed. now that i think about it i think i saw grillb building a bar not too far from our house. that's gonna be one _hot_ restaurant" Frisk's stomach growled, the only thing they ate today was a piece of pie this morning. "heh, you sound pretty hungry, alright let's head to my place" sans took Frisk's hand and walked out of the door and they were in san's room. Frisk wasn't sure if they blinked or if it was just a millisecond of blackness in those shortcuts."make yourself at home, i think pap has some leftover spaghetti in the fridge, i'll be right back" sans left the room and shut the door. Frisk looked around, it wasn't really messy so much as disorganized. Although there was a literal trash tornado in the corner. It mostly contained balled up pieces of paper. There was also a treadmill in the middle of the room and a pile of socks in another corner.

Frisk sat on the bed and leaned on the wadded up ball of blankets and sheets. There was a ding downstairs and then a loud crash and sans could be heard cursing from upstairs. There were several footsteps stomping in the living room and then the front door slammed shut. There was another ding and a minute later sans appeared in his room. "there was a dog under the sink.. heh." he said as he sat next to Frisk and handed them a plate full of spaghetti.

"Doggone it" Frisk replied taking the spaghetti and shoving forkfuls into their mouth.

"heh. good one, kid. now listen, i got somethin' real important to talk with ya about." sans searched Frisk for a reaction but they just sat there inhaling their food. sans continued, " just between us, pal to pal, when ya planning on resetting?" Frisk stiffened. They swallowed and insisted they weren't going to reset. "alright, whatever you say bucko. just do me solid would ya? when you figure it out, let me know." sans patted frisk on the head, and laid down on his bed, hands behind his head, looking up at the ceiling. Frisk finished their meal and placed the plate on san's dresser and laid down next to him.

"I'm not going to, you know." Frisk said softly to sans.

"don't take this the wrong way, kid, but i've heard that one before." sans replied before shifting onto his side. In seconds Frisk heard the small skeleton begin to snore. Frisk rolled over too and let sleep lure them into unconsciousness.

Frisk dreamed of Chara. They dreamed of how helpless they felt. Frisk accidentally killed one lesser monster in the ruins. That was all Chara needed to be summoned, and with each kill their LV increased, they felt Chara's thirst for violence and destruction. They were trapped. Frisk watched as Chara killed friend after friend. Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, sans. All dead, all because of them. Frisk knew this happened before. They knew it wasn't a dream, but a past timeline. They tossed and turned in their sleep. Their last words echoed in the darkness.

"I wasn't protecting you, I was protecting them!" "I still believe in you!" "you dirty brother killer!"

Frisk awoke in bed alone, sweating. It was dawn. The sun had just rose maybe 20 minutes ago. The light poured in from the window and Frisk stretched before getting up and walking downstairs. Papyrus' snores could still be heard from his room. sans was in the kitchen heating up a plate of spaghetti.

"hard time sleeping, eh?" sans asked as Frisk walked into the kitchen. Frisk nodded. "same here, kid. wanna talk about it?" Frisk shook their head, the last thing they wanted was for sans to find out what Frisk had done. How they killed everyone, simply because they were curious. Frisk knew sans could sense jumps in time between saves and resets, but Frisk was certain sans wouldn't be their friend if they knew they had killed Papyrus… several times.

"suit yourself. ya want some noodles?" Frisk nodded and sans gave them the plate that was heating up in the microwave and put another plate in to replace it. "eat up, as soon as pap wakes up we're headed back work. asgore's calling the town ebott, it's not exactly original but it's better than new new home." Frisk laughed.

The door to Papyrus' room shut and Papyrus walked out stretching with a yawn, "SANS, YOU ARE ALREADY AWAKE? AND YOU'VE MADE BREAKFAST? OH SANS, YOU EVEN MADE MY FAVORITE MEAL! SPAGHETTI!" Papyrus raced down the stairs, the microwave beeped and sans handed the plate to Papyrus.

"really? spaghetti is your favorite? it's im _pasta_ ble to tell" Papyrus groaned.

"IF ONLY YOU PUT AS MUCH EFFORT INTO BUILDING OUR NEW HOUSE AS YOU PUT INTO YOUR PUNS" Papyrus walked into the living room with his breakfast, sans followed closely behind him.

-Four days later-

In five days the entire underground had moved to the surface. The residents of Snowdin, all except the skeleton brothers, occupied near the top of Mt. Ebott, they built a wall around the hole so no one would fall in. Grillby build his restaurant on the cliff where the entrance to the underground was. Alphys and Undyne built their lab, Papyrus and sans (reluctantly) build their home, and Toriel and Asgore built their house in between the two. For the most part, all of their houses looked the same as they did in the underground, except Undyne lived in Alphys' lab and it was slightly larger.

A school was built in the middle of town along with a town hall that looked like a cozy cabin. The monsters all pitched in to build extra houses per request of some of the townsfolk down the road.


	3. Chapter 3

Toriel and Asgore were planning to throw a party in celebration of the new town at their new house, which was also slightly larger. The kitchen was about twice the size, the living room had two large armchairs on either side of the fire place with a couch (that can turn into a rather comfortable bed) on the opposite wall. There was a pot of golden flowers in every corner of the room. Frisk's room was the same size, but they didn't mind. The room that was under renovations became Toriel's and Asgore had the last bedroom in the hall. The only real difference lay in the fact that there was no basement.

It was the day before the party and Toriel took Frisk shopping in the village. Frisk got some spiffy new sweaters, all striped of course, of various colors (never green and yellow). Toriel bought refreshments as long as ingredients for lasagna, apple pie and some other meals planned for the week.

Toriel and Frisk returned home and the two put the groceries away. Toriel turned to frisk and smiled, "Well, my child, it seems we have finished our errands for the day, you may go out and play with the others, I believe Sans played a prank on Papyrus, if you hurry you will see his reaction!" Frisk let out a small gasp, a smile crept across their lips and they hugged Toriel goodbye and ran next door. They could hear shouting through the front door and opened it, walking inside.

"SANS! WHY IS YOUR TRASH TORNADO IN MY ROOM? AND LOOK AT ALL OF YOUR SOCKS!"

"that's because it's my room bro."

"WHAT?! BUT MY ROOM WAS ALWAYS ON THE LEFT!"

"yeah but i built the second floor. so my room is on the left." Papyrus looked down at the ground a little disappointed. "don't worry, bro, i made your room twice as big" and with that Papyrus instantly cheered up and ran inside his new room excited.

"WOWIE! YOU EVEN MANAGED TO SET UP MY ROOM EXACTLY LIKE OUR OLD HOME! GOOD WORK SANS! I KNEW I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WOULD RUB OFF ON YOUR LAZY BONES." Papyrus put his hands on hips and looked up at the ceiling.

sans leaned next to frisk, putting his hand over his mouth whispering into their ear "i did that just to mess with him." sans chuckled lightly and leaned up against the wall. His eyes were only small pinpricks in his sockets.

"Are you okay?" Frisk asked softly tugging on his jacket sleeve. sans put a hand up to his head and Frisk could see the dark circles under his eyes, sweat began to bead on the back of his skull and sans slid down the wall until he was sitting on the ground. Frisk gasped and sat in between his legs putting their hands on either side of sans' skull and lifting it, forcing him to look at Frisk. Frisk tilted his head at sans looking for some kind of response.

sans seemed to snap out of it and the lights in his eyes grew to their normal size and his smile grew brighter. He put a hand on top of one of Frisk's, "don't worry about me kid, i just had a pretty bad headache. i'll be fine, don't _sweat_ it." he said while wiping the sweat off of his forehead. Frisk smiled at him, they always managed to enjoy sans' sense of humor.

"so you're free the rest of today right? i haven't gone to grillbz yet, wanna check it out with

me? our last date didn't go as planned." sans had his hands in his pockets but stuck out his elbow for Frisk to take, they were five foot, although technically sans was three inches taller. The barrier was a mile up the road from sans' house, about a 20 minute walk. Frisk nodded and took sans' arm, sans called to his brother letting him know where he was going and that he would be back later.

sans held the door open for Frisk and shut it behind him. He lead Frisk up the path, along the way there was a row of houses along either side of the road. There were mixed residents from Hotland and people Frisk remembered meeting in Mettaton's fancy hotel monsters from the core. A lot of monsters walked up to Frisk and thanked them, giving them several trinkets and gifts.

They continued down the road and the houses ended, the path wa surrounded by thick pine trees. The wind blew straight through Frisk and they shivered. It was getting chilly, Halloween was around the corner. The leaves were starting to change color (although most of the trees on Mt. Ebott are pine). sans noticed Frisk's shiver and shrugged off his jacket, putting it on Frisk one arm at a time. It fit them just about as well as it fit sans, a little big, but comfy. _they actually looked kinda cute in it_ , sans couldn't help but think. "i see you're _shaking_ with anticipation. don't worry, we're here. huh, looks like muffet opened her bakery right next to grillby. guess this is my new hangout spot" sans said jabbing a thumb in the direction of the eating establishments.

They walked into Grillbz and could see the usual gang hanging out. sans sat at the booth in front of Grillby and patted the stool next to him for Frisk to join him. "what're ya thinkin'? burgers or fries?" sans asked.

"Both!" replied Frisk. sans closed his eyes and laughed.

"you heard the ambassador, two orders of burgers and fries. thanks grillby" he said clicking his tongue pointing both fingers at the flame monster with his index fingers and thumbs. He spun around on his stool a couple of times and turned towards Frisk. "so, kid, what's it like being an ambassador? that's pretty important stuff, doesn't it get stressful?" Frisk thought about it. It had only been five days, only nearby towns even knew the monsters were on the surface again. There wasn't a whole lot of political stuff going on yet, so there was no stress.

Frisk shook their head, "change doesn't happen that fast, it's been less than a week, silly" they smiled at sans and shoved his shoulder playfully. "Plus I think Toriel and Asgore will be handling most of the official stuff, I probably won't understand most of it."

sans smacked his skull "that's right, it's only been a week…"

Grillby walked out with their order and put it on the counter in front of them. "ketchup?" sans asked, holding the bottle over to Frisk. Frisk nodded and grabbed the bottle and turned it upside down above their fries, the cap came off and a gross amount of ketchup plopped out and seeped over the edge of the dish. "didn't you learn the first that happened, that's okay i like mine like this anyways" sans swapped the fried and started drinking straight out of the ketchup bottle, Frisk winced. Gross. _Where does it go anyways?_ Frisk wondered.

Frisked shrugged it off and enjoyed their burger. It was greasy but otherwise it was good. When Frisk looked over, san's fries were gone and his burger was left untouched.

sans was just staring at his burger, lost in thought. his eye sockets were completely empty. Then, without warning, Frisk runs to the trashcan and starts throwing up. sans' head shot up and his lights returned, small and concerned. The circles under his eyes looked even darker that a few moments ago and he ran over to Frisk and put a hand on their back. "kid, what's wrong with ya? what do i do?" Frisk couldn't answer, they were too busy throwing up everything in their stomach until they were only dry heaving and occasionally coughing up stomach bile that made their mouth taste bitter. Frisk hung over the trashcan for a minute shivering and dropped like a dead weight to the floor.

sans clutched his skull trying to think of what could be wrong. He began to sweat but picked up Frisk and carried them. sans walked into the trees and hopped through a rip of space and time leading them to sans' new room. He put Frisk down on the bed, the kid was burning hot. sans left the room and grabbed a towel, he wet the middle of it and filled a glass with water. He placed the sopping wet towel on Frisk's head, wetting their hair and the hood of sans' jacket. The water he set on the nightstand across the room for when Frisk (hopefully) woke up.

sans had texted Papyrus, who was out training with Undyne, what happened. Undyne was going to bring over Alphys who had been studying human illness while on the surface. Papyrus told sans they had to go to the store to get medicine for Frisk and instructed sans to keep an eye on Frisk.

sans also texted Toriel and Asgore, but they were in a meeting with the mayor of the neighboring village (he learned the village was called New Hope) so they probably would not answer for at least another hour. That left sans to look after Frisk by himself. Yeah, because sans didn't have enough to stress about already, now the kid's sick. _Maybe they will get so sick they reset_ , sans thought, _no, they wouldn't. they said.. they told me.. they wouldn't._ sans shook away the bad thought.

sans left the room and grabbed a bucket from under the kitchen sink (luckily this time it was dog free) and set it down on the floor next to Frisk. Almost instantly Frisk rolled over, their eyes shot open and they dry heaved into the bucket. _egh_ sans thought. He walked over to the dresser and brought Frisk the glass of water "that looks painful. i don't know much about humans being sick, but it might hurt less if you throw up water than whatever that gross yellow stuff is." Frisk nodded in thanks and sipped on the glass of water.

sans put a hand on Frisk's head and gave it a little scratch, "you're gonna be okay kid, alphys is getting you some medicine that's s'posed to make you all better" Frisk leaned into sans' hand. "heh. you like that huh? humans are weird." Frisk laid back down, enjoying the feeling of cool, slightly sharp (but not painfully so) fingers being run through their hair. Even after Frisk started to snore, sans continued to play with Frisk's hair, they seemed to be relaxed by it and sans didn't mind. He just wanted Frisk to get better.

There was a loud thud and some grumbling coming from downstairs. sans went to go invesitgate and found Undyne's foot stuck in the middle of the door, apparently she was trying to kick it open and just kicked straight through it. Papyrus was trying to help her out of the door.

"you got the meds?" sans asked Alphys, who nodded in reply and handed sans two pills. sans took another glass of water and the medicine up to Frisk, who was sitting up with the bucket in their lap puking up the water the drank earlier. _poor kid_ sans thought. He gave Frisk the medicine, they seemed to already know what to do with it, they swallowed both pills and went back to sleep. sans shot another text to Toriel and Asgore letting them know that he gave Frisk something to make them feel better. He told them he thought it would be better if Frisk stayed the night again seeing how moving them might upset them. sans' phone vibrated, he opened it and read the text from Toriel:

"Sans! I am so sorry the meeting was much longer than expected, I am so worried about Frisk, but thank you so much for taking care of them. I know they are in good hands, Asgore and I will stop by in the morning to pickup Frisk so they may rest in their own room."  
sans left to go tell the others that Frisk's fever had fallen and they seemed to stop throwing up long enough to get some sleep. Undyne and Alphys said goodbye and apologized for breaking the door. Papyrus went into sans' room partially out of habit of his room being on the left, and partially to say goodnight to Frisk.

sans couldn't sleep. he stayed up all night playing with Frisk's hair, running hi _s fingers lightly on their scalp, watching bumps form under their skin. He was lost in thought. why isn't the machine working? i thought i had everything i needed? what's the point… frisk isn't happy. they're just gonna reset. it's happened before._ they've gotten out multiple times, sans knew. _the kid gets bored, at any time i will wake up back in snowdin_ sans' thoughts swirled around him, it had been days since he slept, tonight would be no exception.


	4. Chapter 4

[Author's Note: I will look over suggestions, I'm very excited to see where this story goes, and your suggestions make it all the better! Also I make short chapters and ship Franks, deal with it? 3]

Frisk awoke with sans still running his fingers through their hair. _Had he been doing that all night?_ Frisk's stomach ached but hasn't thrown up since they took the medicine. They actually almost felt completely better, maybe it was just a 24 hour stomach bug. Frisk forced their eyes open and stretched their arms and back, making bones pop in several places. Sans flinched.

"mornin'. you really gave me a scare last night, pal. You seemed perfectly okay walking to grillbz. then all of a sudden you started shaking and gross stuff started coming out of your mouth. it smelled terrible to be honest. how are you feeling now?" sans got up from his chair and sat on the edge of the bed. He put his hands up to Frisk's forehead and felt its normal temperature. He let out a silent sigh of relief. "so what the hell happened?" sans asked looking at Frisk.

Frisk shrugged in response, "a lot of times humans get sick and don't know why. But it could be because of all the excitement of breaking the barrier, or it could just be a 24 hour stomach bug" sans tilted his head at that.

"you have bugs in your stomach?" sans asked confused. Frisk shook their head and chuckled.

"It means you get a virus for a short time and then it goes away. Humans can recover pretty fast" Frisk smiled and sat up "but at least I'm all better for the party today! You'll be there right?" Frisk looked up at sans expectantly, sans was avoiding their eyes and looked at the wall on the other side of the room.

"i dunno, kid. i have a lot i need to get done. i'm in the middle of something really important, the brink of a breakthrough, let me tell ya. it'll help us understand time better, help me find some answers i've been searching years for. i'll probably stop by later tonight, but not for long" sans saw the excitement drain from their eyes. _shit. they were looking forward to me being there. but i don't know if i can handle being around so many people. i'm so fucking tired, what if i… on accident…?_ no, he wouldn't. that's why he wouldn't be there for long. Frisk doesn't understand why, but sans can't be around Frisk right now, or anyone for that matter. _it's for their own protection,_ he thought.

There was a soft knock on sans' door, Papyrus called on the other side "BROTHER, MAY I COME IN, I WISH TO CHECK ON MY DEAR FRIEND" sans hopped off the bed and opened the door, Papyrus walked inside and sat on the bed. "FRISK YOU ARE LOOKING WELL! I'M SO RELIEVED TO SEE YOU IN GOOD HEALTH! TORIEL WILL BE OVER IN A MINUTE TO TAKE YOU HOME, BUT I WILL SEE YOU AT THE PARTY TONIGHT IF YOU ARE STILL NOT ILL!" Papyrus gave frisk a hug and patted them on the head, Frisk smiled hearing the news of Papyrus attending their party. "I MUST READY MYSELF, I AM GOING TO BRING A MEAL FOR DINNER, IT IS A SURPRISE SO DO NOT GO IN THE KITCHEN!" Papyrus got up and left the room. He called from downstairs "FRISK, TORIEL IS HERE!"

Frisk jumped off the bed and realized they were still wearing sans' jacket. It was a heavier coat lined with soft fuzzy fur on the inside, it reminded Frisk of Toriel's warm furry hugs. Frisk unzipped it and handed it to sans. "ya sure, kid? you don't wanna just borrow it for the day?" Frisk grinned and quickly zipped the jacket back up. Frisk gave sans a hug, and held it for a while.

"Thanks for taking care of me" Frisk said and put their forehead up against sans' and nuzzled it. sans looked down at the floor then up at the ceiling, avoiding Frisk's gaze.

"anytime, kid. y'know, i wouldn't be mad if you jumped to your last save if you died. i couldn't live without cha" sans was scratching the back of his head, there was a shadow cast across the bridge of his nose that spread to his cheeks, it looked almost...blue? "anyways, you go have fun, i'll see ya later tonight"

Frisk walked out of sans' room leaving him to sit and drown in his thoughts. He had too much on his mind, he had to do something to occupy it. He had to figure out that damn machine downstairs. Sans walked to the back left corner of his room and took a step through a shortcut into his lab back in snowdin. He tore off the sheet and what stood before him was a large cylindrical machine with a screen and a keyboard that had strange symbols on it. The screen was on but showed nothing but static. There was a loud humming coming from the machine, sans picked up some papers that were scrambled about the counter next to the machine, he matched the symbols in the notes to the symbols on the keys, shuffling through the papers, reading the strange symbols as if it was a second language to him, because it was.

Something in the machine clicked and hissed, sans looked up at the screen, it twitched, but was still static, but it sounded like he could hear…. voices? coming from inside? He furiously typed in more strings of symbols and the screen turned black, it looked like it shut off.

"what? no.. no no fuck what did i do? gaster? can you hear me?" he pounded on the machine, the screen flashed a face. It was white with cracks in the skull. It was Gaster, but not as sans remembered him. The picture appeared corrupted, the pixels were distorted and the next second the face was gone. sans gaped at the screen and quickly scribbled the order of the symbols he typed in. "okay… okay progress. i'll getcha back, don't worry."

Meanwhile Frisk was dressed up for the party, they wore a long black turtleneck sweater that had a white stripe in the center. It was long enough to look like a dress, Frisk wore leggings and boots along with it.

The house was spotless and smelled of pie, as always. There were several wooden chairs set up in the living room and kitchen for the guests to sit. There was some music playing from the stereo, it was a happy but familiar tune that Frisk couldn't quite place. There was some Mettaton show on the TV.

Papyrus was the first to arrive, he brought the smell of noodles and sauce with him. In a glass pan sat a huge lasagna. It looked like the edges were burnt but the rest of it looked pretty good.

"DO NOT WORRY TORIEL I HAVE BROUGHT THE GIFT OF LASAGNA! IT IS A SPAGHETTI CAKE! OR, ER, A SPAGHETTI CASSEROLE, PERHAPS? NONE THE LESS IT IS SPAGHETTI, AND IT IS EVEN BETTER BECAUSE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, MADE IT!" Toriel thanked him and grabbed the plate and put it in the kitchen with the rest of the snacks.

Undyne and Alphys were the next to arrive, Alphys held the door open for Undyne to prevent her from breaking another. Undyne walked through the house smirking and nodding approvingly at the house, "Not too shabby, homey as always" she said to Asgore as he came out of his room. Him and Undyne sat on the couch and talked, laughing, Alphys was standing next to Undyne with her face in her phone tapping away.

Mettaton even managed to drop by and say hello to Alphys, congratulate Asgore and Toriel and to thank Frisk. It seemed all of Ebott showed up to the party, Woshua was in the kitchen cleaning dishes, Napstablook took over the stereo and was playing some of their own music. It was a happy day. Everyone was content and laughing, talking among one another, eating, and dancing. The party was a huge success.

It must have been after midnight before the party finally died down and guests began to leave. Papyrus generously left the rest of the lasagna in the fridge for Frisk the following day. sans never did show up. Frisk was a little disappointed but knew sans was not feeling quite himself, they only hoped sans was finally sleeping. The shadows under his eyes were worrying Frisk, and he wasn't throwing jokes around like he usually did. Frisk said goodnight to Toriel and Asgore when everyone had left, gave them each a big hug and went to their room. They laid in their bed and cuddled further into sans' jacket. They supposed they would be keeping it safe tonight since sans didn't show up. It smelled good, it smelled like...safety? Protection? but also good, like a cooler smell before it rained. Frisk fell asleep with the smell surrounding their thoughts.


	5. Chapter 5

[Author's Note: finally we're getting into the juicy stuff and dumb Frisk x Sans fluff. Here's a longer chapter for you to enjoy since I missed posting yesterday!]

Even with the familiar texture and aroma of sans' jacket, Frisk still slept uneasy. They had dreams of Chara again. It was black, they saw nothing, but could hear and feel Chara tugging on Frisk's emotions. They dreamt they felt bored, not in a good way. Chara was hungry for destruction. Begging for Frisk to kill someone, anyone, just one small monster. Once that task was done, Chara could do the rest. They could let Frisk idly sit by in the back of their subconscious, watching everyone they love die at their own hands. Unable to stop it. _How much more pathetic could they get? Thinking they have hope, hah. All this monster/human ambassador shit? Borin_ g… _it's only a matter of time before you can't take it anymore. I'll be waiting._

Frisk opened their eyes but their dream didn't end. Chara's voice was still ringing in their head, they had a heavy feeling of guilt sit like a stone in their stomach. Frisk's phone began vibrating on their nightstand. It was Papyrus.

"GOOD MORNING, HUMAN! I AM CALLING CONCERNING MY BROTHER, HAVE YOU SEEN HIM?" Papyrus seemed nervous. Frisk told them they saw him yesterday before the party but that was the last time. "ER, WELL, IF YOU FIND HIM PLEASE LET ME KNOW IMMEDIATELY, I'M WORRIED HE ISN'T SLEEPING ENOUGH AND WHEN HE DOESN'T SLEEP HE TENDS TO GET A LITTLE…" Papyrus' sentence trailed off, rethinking what he was saying, "IN ANY CASE TEXT ME IF YOU SEE HIM, SEE YOU LATER!" the phone clicked.

 _Just how long has it been since sans slept?_ Frisk wondered to their self. _Was he dangerous? ….wasn't he always dangerous?_ Frisk thought they were overthinking this. sans was probably setting up an illegal hotdog stand somewhere in New Hope or at Grillbz, Papyrus just worried too much.

Frisk threw the covers off of them and pulled on their favorite blue and purple striped sweater. Toriel and Asgore were meeting the president today, they had to take a plane to the white house and would be gone for a week while they met with the house members and the vice president. They had many concerns to go over, such as laws protecting monsters from humans (and vice versa), monster health care, laws regarding certain powers the monsters had, etc.

Frisk's phone vibrated again, it was sans! It read:

"sorry i couldn't make it yesterday. i'll make it up to you. there's someone i'd like you to meet. meet me at my place back in snowdin" Frisk responded with a simple "okay" and walked out of their room, they took a right and headed into the kitchen. Their stomach was making small rumbles as they opened up the fridge. There was leftover pie, lasagna, some homemade chip dip, and some baked goods from Muffet. Frisk decided they would have some lasagna. They took the glass pan out and put the last piece on a plate and popped it in the microwave. They put the pan in the sink and began to fill it with water and soap. They tried their best to get it clean, although some of the burnt lasagna just did not come off. _Good enough,_ Frisk thought. The microwave beeped and Frisk sat in the living room with their meal. They turned on the TV, it was Mettaton, Burgerpants, Shyren and Napstablook. They were playing music in front of a large audience.

Frisk ate the last bite of lasagna and quickly washed the plate in the sink then drained the water. They looked in the fridge and grabbed some of Muffet's spider cider and muffins for a snack later with sans. They turned off the TV before leaving the house, walking next door to the skeleton brothers'.

Frisk invited themself inside as they always did to see Papyrus and Undyne cooking in the kitchen. It smelled burnt.

"OH! HUMAN, HELLO!" Frisk waved at them and walked over holding out the glass pan. "OH YOU EVEN WASHED IT, THANK YOU! THIS IS THE PERFECT DISH TO USE WITH OUR NEW RECIPE! WE ARE MAKING ALFREDO PASTA, WHICH IS JUST LIKE SPAGHETTI BUT WITH A DIFFERENT SAUCE!"

"sans texted me this morning, he said he was in Snowdin. I'm heading over to see him now," Frisk said remembering Papyrus' worry about his brother the day before.

"IF YOU ARE GOING TO SEE HIM, CAN YOU MAKE SURE HE IS WELL RESTED? IF NOT THEN I DO NOT WANT YOU NEAR HIM, HE GETS...ER… CRANKY WHEN HE HASN'T SLEPT" Papyrus looked nervous glancing side to side. Papyrus was the worst liar. Frisk nodded and said goodbye to the two and began walking back up Mt. Ebott to the entrance of the Underground. When they reached Grillbz they stopped inside and ordered 2 burgers, Frisk also snagged a bottle of ketchup for sans.

When Grillby returned with your order, he reached behind the counter and grabbed a paper bag and put the burgers inside. The bottom of the bag was turning a darker brown as the grease seeped through the bag.. Frisk smiled at them and paid Grillby a little extra G for taking the bottle of ketchup and said goodbye, he nodded to you in response while he was drying a glass.

Frisk walked through the entrance, through Asgore's castle, and through Mettaton's hotel until they got to the core. That's where they met the river person, who was conveniently still in the underground giving free boat rides. Frisk was thankful for this. They asked to be taken to Snowdin and the boat turned into a dog with legs and ran across the water to Snowdin.

"Tra la la. Beware the man that speaks in hands," the river person said as they sang. Frisk tilted their head at this advice but didn't think much of it considering the river person sometimes said strange and irrelevant things. For all Frisk knew they could be singing a song.

The river person dropped them off, Frisk thanked them and said goodbye. They ventured South and turned towards the skeleton brothers' old house. Frisk knocked this time. Their pocket vibrated. It was a text from sans, all it said was "back door".

 _Back door?_ Frisk thought, they had never realized this house had a back door. They didn't remember there being another exit when they were last inside this house. Frisk supposed it was something easy to overlook and walked around to the back of the house. There was, in fact, a door here.

Frisk tried to turn the knob, but it was locked. There was a click from behind the door and it swung towards Frisk. What stood before them was definitely not what they were expecting. It was a small room with a large sheet covering something up in the corner of the room. There were papers scattered all over the floor with illegible scrawls written all over it. _Is this even English or is sans just that bad at writing?_ Frisk thought.

sans was holding the door open for Frisk, grinning at Frisk's awestruck reaction. His eye lights went straight to the paper bag, the entire bottom half was wet with grease. His stomach ached, _when was the last time i ate? two days ago? three?_ He couldn't recall. The past few days had all jumbled together in his mind. He hadn't slept for three days straight, but it was worth it.

"hey, bucko. good to see ya. welcome to my lab." he gestured towards the room behind him inviting Frisk inside, their mouth was still wide open as they took a few steps inside. sans closed the door behind them. Frisk pointed up at the thing under the sheet, it towered over the both of them.

"heh. that old thing? that's what i wanted to show ya." he ripped off the sheet to reveal the machine. It looked broken. The screen was black, the lights under the keys were turned off, and it was completely silent. Frisk stared at the machine, eyes wide. They circled it once then turned to sans.

"You...built this?" sans nodded, watching Frisk intently observing the machine. It filled him with pride seeing the kid so interested in his work. "What does it do?"

"at first, i built it as a time machine. something….went wrong. very wrong. i lost a friend because of this damn thing, i've been trying to get him back ever since. i gave up on goin' back a long time ago, kid. so i tried something different, and it seemed to work, and well, now i've got a friend i'd like you to meet." His grin grew wider, his stomach growled and his smile faltered for a second, a bead of sweat could be seen creeping on his forehead.

Frisk was snapped out of their amazement of their new discovery of sans and held out the bag from Grillbz and smiled at him.

"you always think of everything, thanks kid. really." he reached into the bag and grabbed a burger, he handed one to Frisk, they shook their head and pointed at sans, "they're both for me? but what're you gonna eat?"

"I had some of Papyrus' lasagna" Frisk said and the two of them took a seat on the floor as sans ate his burgers. He didn't chew, he just bit off a piece and swallowed. "where does it go?" Frisk asked, curiously.

"food turns into energy for humans right? well it turns into magic for monsters" sans winked at Frisk and stood up, he took another bite and lifted up his white turtleneck. He swallowed and Frisk watched as the food fell into the stomach cavity and just floated there for a second. It was then engulfed by what looked like sans' blue magic, it swirled around the food making a blue sphere around it and then the magic separated into small wisps that phased back into his bones. "neat huh?" Frisk nodded and was smiling up at sans. For the first time Frisk actually looked at sans, observing him. He hadn't made a single joke since they got here, there were lines under his sockets and what looked like a small crack above his right eye. There was another underneath his left eye. _Wait, those aren't lines under his eyes, they're cracks!_ Frisk thought.

A sickening feeling entered their stomach seeing sans so… broken. Frisk supposed this is what Papyrus was talking about. He didn't seem cranky like Papyrus said earlier, but maybe that's because sans seemed to be in a good mood?

"Are you okay?" Frisk asked looking up sadly at sans, furrowing their eyebrows. sans walked over to the counter that was littered with papers, he grabbed a couple from the top of the pile and shuffled through them.

"hey, kid, don't worry about me, i'm the best i've been in a long time. okay, now before you meet gaster you should probably be briefed on our relationship. we worked together… a long time ago, before alphys was the royal scientist. he was the genius who built the core. well, something went wrong shortly after the core was built. he was dying, and i wanted to help him. i spent day after day on this machine, hoping it could travel through time, or dimensions, or any place really where gaster was okay. i guess you could say i bit off more than i could chew" sans's grin grew slightly at his joke as he finished his first burger. He reached inside the bag for the other, finding the ketchup bottle at the bottom. "you really do think of everything, don't cha?" he took the bottle and squirted about a quarter of it into his mouth. "anyways, gaster was on the edge of dying, i did the only thing that i thought could save him, i put him in this machine here and turned it on. i didn't know too much about time and space back then, but i was desperate. the machine was a fluke. it broke with gaster in there, i could hear him screaming from inside but i couldn't open the door, the screen was flashing colors and static and started to shake." there was a loud snap that came from sans, Frisk flinched and looked up at him, the cracks under his left eye spread a little further down his face "fuck" he said as he slapped his hand over his eye.

He sat down on the floor and pulled his knees up to his chest, still clutching his eye. "anyways, the thing nearly exploded. it caught fire and when i put out the fire the machine shut off. the screen went black, it stopped shaking and buzzing, and when i opened the door, gaster was gone. i thought he was dead. i kept working on this to try to get him back. until i saw him in my dreams, or sometimes i would see him appear in the core. sometimes he talked to me. he told me he was watching over me. he said when he went into my machine that he was scattered across all of space and time." sans lowered his hand, and stared at the floor "that's when i gave up on trying to go back, and i started focusing on getting all of his matter back together in one time and place. i haven't been exactly successful, but i have made a breakthrough" sans walked up to the machine and Frisk followed, "at least now i can find all of him for long enough to project him on this screen." sans looked at the papers in his hand and back at the keyboard, he was typing in the symbols and the machine started to hum. The screen turned on and showed nothing but static, but sans was still typing. there was a bright white light seeping out of the cracks in the door of the machine. sans took a step back and watched as the machine made various noises, it beeped and hissed and shook.

Then, the screen showed Gaster's face. Gaster also had cracks in his face, there was one crack above his left eye and one below his right. He wore a smile that left Frisk uneasy. His eyes were empty. "this is him!" sans said watching Frisk "he can hear everything we're saying but we can't hear him. he uses his hands to talk, but it's the same code him and i used before the...accident. so i can translate it for ya" Frisk thought about what the river person had said on their way over here, it made them shiver. Frisk waved at the screen anyways and Gaster raised his hand in response, lights appeared in his eyes and his smile grew more genuine.

sans began talking to gaster about some theories he had about timelines and dimensions, stuff Frisk didn't really understand. Sans was taking notes in that strange code as Gaster used hand symbols and gestures to talk back to sans. It looked similar to sign language, but not any sign language Frisk was aware of.

Gaster signed something and sans froze. "i… i never thought of that. shit i don't know it could be a risk… what if i lose you forever? this is the closest i've gotten, i promised you…that i would get you out…. and i haven't even tested that at all, it could do anything…. maybe even bring you back?" sans' head shot up, he had hope in his eyes. Gaster signed in response and sans nodded at him, he looked through some of the drawers underneath the counter, Frisk watched him and some photos caught their eye. sans was in the middle of a large group. It looked like they were in the core. Frisk didn't recognize any of these monsters.

sans grabbed a black case that resembled a small briefcase and clicked it open. There were several glass vials, Frisk counted 12, three of which were empty. sans took one of the vials and unscrewed a panel towards the bottom of the machine. He poured the vial into the machine and the machine hissed. The light that shone through the cracks turned red and glowed even brighter, sans screwed the panel back on and walked back up to the screen. Gaster was still projected on the screen, although the image would occasionally turn to static. The lights in Gaster's eyes disappeared and his smile turned into a horrified frown. A high pitched squealing came from the machine and one of the tubes connected to it burst. steam poured out of the tube causing it to flail around wildly. The tube swung in front of Frisk shooting steam all over their arm, Frisk screamed but it was drowned out by the noise the machine was making. They clutched their arm and sank to the floor, tears dripping onto their lap.

"fuck fuck no, gaster you said it would work! don't leave, shit, no come back!" the screen turned only to static and several other tubes disconnected from the machine, filling the room with steam. sans typed some symbols into the machine and it turned off. SNAP. sans clutched his skull. SNAP. He sunk down on the wall furthest away from Frisk. SNAP. sans let out a small whimper. SNAP. A blue flame leaked from his hands covering his eyes "no...no no no.. i can't deal with this right now. fuck" SNAP. He lowered his hands from his face. His entire skull was filled with cracks, it looked like if Frisk touched him he would shatter into a million pieces. The light was gone in his one eye, the blue flame grew brighter in the other. "why can't i do anything right?!" he cried, he stared at the ground, his fists were opening and closing, Frisk could see he was trying to keep calm.

Gaster Blasters materialized on either side of sans. they were pointed at the machine. Frisk looked at the machine then back at sans, he was still staring at the ground. The screen flashed and Gaster's face was visible for only a split second. sans didn't seem to see it. The blasters started charging their lasers and Frisk tried to call out to sans but nothing came out.

Frisk stood up and ran in front of the machine. "kid? get outta the way! that piece of shit machine's wasted too much of my life. night after night i worked on this. and this is what i get? all that work to save him and now he's gone. i'm not wasting anymore time on that. kid, if you keep doing what you're doing now. **you're gonna have a bad time** " Frisk flinched as memories of Chara flooded back to them, but they held out their arms and refused to leave. The blasters were fully charged and Frisk closed their eyes awaiting impact. At the last second the blasters shot through the ceiling. They dematerialized and a part of the ceiling caved in. sans shook his head.

Frisk coughed and tried again to talk. Their voice came out hoarse from the yell that escaped them earlier. "Gast-" they cleared their throat "Gaster is still alive.. I saw him on the screen while you were charging those." sans looked up at Frisk, they were still wearing sans' hoodie but their left arm was exposed, the sleeve had been ripped and there were huge blisters forming. sans ran over to them.

"shit, was that me? i'm so sorry, kid." Frisk shook their head and pointed at some of the tubes hanging off the machine. sans took off the jacket to get a better look at their arm. Their entire forearm and some of their wrist was red, plagued by blisters that looked like they would burst at any second.

Frisk smiled at sans and pulled out a muffin and ate it. They watched Frisk's arm, the blisters slowly sunk back into their arm and their skin started losing the red tint, going back to Frisk's pale white skin tone. "All better." Frisk said and handed the spider cider and a muffin to sans.

"kid?" sans said looking at Frisk, Frisked tilted their head at him, "...thanks." Frisk smiled and sans took the muffin and cider. He popped the entire muffin into his mouth and swallowed, then he chugged the cider and let out a long sigh. Most of the cracks in his skull began to disappear, except for the two cracks around his sockets that resembled Gaster's.

"i dunno 'bout you, but i'm beat" he said. _That's a bit of a stretch,_ Frisk thought but was just glad to see sans getting a hold of himself. "i'm gonna go upstairs and take a nap, what about you?" Frisk nodded and started walking to the back door, sans grabbed their hand and lightly pulled them backwards, Frisk lost their balance and fell into sans' arms, sans hopped backwards and a rush of air tickled Frisk's bare arms and they were in his bedroom.

"i think i need a break from that thing" sans said as he jumped on the the bed lying on his back. sans patted the empty space next to him. Frisk sat next to him.

"sans…?" Frisk called out to him but he was already snoring. Frisk pulled out their phone and took a picture of sans sleeping and sent it to Papyrus. Papyrus texted back an open mouthed smiley face. Frisk laid down next to sans, they wrapped their arms around him and rest their head on his outstretched arm. His bones dug into Frisk's skull, they grabbed a pillow from the end of the bed and put it on sans' arm and chest. _That's better_ , Frisk thought laying their head back down.

Frisk started tracing designs in sans' sweater and he would moan softly in his sleep, still snoring. Frisk traced the line of his jaw and neck, leading their finger back to his sweater. They traced his ribs where they would poke out of the sweater. Frisk was still tracing him when they closed their eyes. Laying next to sans and seeing him okay put Frisk's mind at ease, and allowed them for the first time since freeing the monsters, to dream happy dreams.


	6. Chapter 6

[Author's note: forgive me for the short chapter! I'll do better next time I promise! D: ]

When Frisk woke up they were in the same position they had fallen asleep, their head was nuzzled into sans' chest with their arm hugging him tightly. sans' hand was entangled with Frisks', he still seemed sound asleep. Frisk tried to get up but as soon as they shifted sans rolled over and pulled Frisk closer to him, wrapping his arms around them. Frisk shrugged and just enjoyed laying with sans.

Frisk noticed that sans was actually emitting heat. _How does a monster without a body give off body heat?_ Frisk wondered if it was his magic. Speaking of magic, they could hear a soft humming coming from sans' bones, it sounded as if his bones were vibrating but with them staying completely still. It was relaxing.

The front door opened and Papyrus walked into the living room and into his old room. "OH, RIGHT, WRONG ROOM" sans' bedroom door swung open and Papyrus was standing in the doorway. "SANS, ARE YOU ALRIGHT? YOU'VE BEEN GONE THE PAST TWO DAYS, FRISK TOLD ME YOU WERE BACK HERE"

sans rolled back onto his back, freeing Frisk, stretched, and yawned. He lazily opened his eyes, the cracks and dark circles underneath were almost completely gone. "yeah bro, 'm fine. just needed a familiar place to sleep i guess." sans sat up and stretched one more time then got out of bed and walked to his closet, he pulled out his spare jacket, this one was a darker blue and didn't have fur lined around the hood. He walked over to his bed and put his hand on Frisks' head "hey, kid you awake? pap and i are gonna head back to our place, wanna come?" Frisk rolled over and smiled at sans and Papyrus. They sat up and hung their legs over the bed. They pulled their shoes on and stood up.

sans held out his spare jacket for Frisk, "it's getting pretty cold out, the wind already goes right through me, so you might as well take it" he winked and Frisk grinned up at him and accepted his jacket. They pulled it on and zipped it up, it wasn't as soft as the other jacket, but it was still warm.

"what's for dinner pap?" sans asked his brother as they walked down the stairs and out of the door.

"I'M GLAD YOU ASKED BROTHER! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE MADE ALFREDO PASTA! UNDYNE TAUGHT ME!"

"sorry bro, i don't know if i can _stomach_ that" sans said winking and shrugging his shoulders. Frisk snickered.

"ARGH, SANS, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THE HUMAN?!"

"nothin', bro, we just find the same jokes _humerous_ " he nudged Papyrus, Papyrus rolled his eyes. "aw come on, i see that smile" sans squinted his eyes and smiled bigger at him.

"ARGH! I KNOW AND I HATE IT!"

The three of them walked back to Ebott, sand and Frisk were joking and laughing at puns, Papyrus was trying to groan loud enough to drown them out, but then they just started whispering in each other's' ears. Papyrus seemed to be slightly more okay with that.

They finally reached the skeleton bro's house. The entire kitchen was painted black with scorch marks and soot. "uh.. bro? what happened?"

"ERM, WELL, UNDYNE GOT A LITTLE… TOO PASSIONATE WHEN SHE WAS COOKING. BUT DO NOT WORRY! BECAUSE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CONTINUED TO COOK ALL DAY UNTIL I MASTERED IT! ALTHOUGH WE HAVE TO HEAT IT UP SINCE I HAD TO WALK ALL THE WAY TO SNOWDIN AND BACK TO GET YOUR LAZY BONES" His tone was loving, "I AM GLAD THAT YOU FINALLY GOT SOME REST. YOU LOOK A LOT BETTER THAN WHEN YOU LEFT" Papyrus walked to the fridge and retrieved the bowl of alfredo and put it in the microwave.

Frisks' phone started vibrating, it was Toriel.

"Hi mom!" Frisk said after hitting the accept button.

"Hello, my child! How have you been?"

"I'm having a lot of fun with sans and Papyrus! How is all that political stuff going"

"It's going quite well! Apparently it goes against this country's morals to treat people differently, so there were no issues negotiating citizenship for the people. They are concerned, however, that humans will try to hunt monsters to absorb their souls.."

"Well hopefully that doesn't happen."

"Yes, that would be horrible… but we were able to meet with the cabinet members a few days early and now everything that needed to be sorted out is almost finished, we'll be able to come home in two days!" The microwave started beeping and Papyrus was filling up three bowls. He stuck a fork in the middle of every pasta mountain.

"Ah! I can't wait to eat your homemade meals again!" Frisk whispered into the phone "I can only take so much of Papyrus' cooking" A howl of laughter erupted from the other line of the phone and Frisk chuckled too.

"Do not fear, my child. I will make your favorite dish when we get back." You could hear Asgore calling Toriel's name in the background, "oh they are looking for me, I will talk to you soon!"

-click-

" _bone_ appetit, bucko" sans said holding Frisk's bowl up to them. Frisk happily took the bowl and sat on the couch in the living room in between the two skeletons. Papyrus was watching one of Mettaton's cooking shows. It was the re-run starring Frisk.

"HUMAN, I DID NOT KNOW YOU WERE SO GOOD AT COOKING! AND I HAD NO IDEA YOU WERE FRIENDS WITH THE AMAZING, THOUGH NOT QUITE AS GREAT AS I, METTATON" Papyrus shouted next to Frisk in excitement.

"Yeah, he's been pretty busy. His career skyrocketed when he moved to the surface, the humans can't get enough of him. Next time he's in town I can introduce you guys if you want?" Frisk suggested.

"THAT WOULD BE AMAZING! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THOSE SEXY LEGS IN PERSON!"

Papyrus was intently watching the show, sans fell asleep on the couch, his plate was empty, but Frisk didn't see sans eat a bite. Frisk was halfway done with their pasta before they got full, they asked Papyrus if they could take it home as leftovers.

"WOWIE! YOU LIKE MY COOKING SO MUCH YOU EVEN WANT TO TAKE IT HOME WITH YOU? OF COURSE YOU CAN, HUMAN! I WILL EVEN GIVE YOU EXTRA!" Papyrus finished eating his alfredo and the show ended. "AH-HA! NOT EVEN METTATON WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO TAKE OUT MY AWESOME BEST FRIEND AND THEIR EVEN MORE AWESOME DODGING SKILLS!" he gathered all of the plates and began to wash them. He put half of the leftover alfredo in one container and half in a different container. He put them both in the refrigerator. "IT'S IN THE FRIDGE FOR YOU, SO DON'T FORGET IT WHEN YOU LEAVE" he said as he sat back on the couch, it looked like the next Mettaton show was the weather?

Frisk's phone vibrated, it was sans; "wanna go upstairs? i think pap's asleep." Frisk looked over and Pap looked sound asleep, his head looked like it was resting uncomfortably in between the back cushion and arm rest. _I guess they don't get cramps without muscles,_ Frisk thought. When Frisk looked on their other side, sans was looking at the expectantly. _Was he ever asleep?_

Frisk nodded at him. He hopped off the couch and held his hand out to Frisk, Frisk took it and slid off the couch, they let go of sans' hand but he just tightened it. Frisk entangled their fingers once more and they walked upstairs.

He opened the door for Frisk and they walked inside. "so whadya thinkin' kid?" sans said as he walked over to the bed and sat down, Frisk was . A balled up piece of paper from his trash tornado hit him in the face. It dropped into his lap and he threw it back in.

"I thought you were too lazy to be a scientist," Frisk replied, sitting next to sans. He was now playing catch with the paper ball, throwing it in the tornado and catching it.

"heh, i'm lazy _because_ i'm a scientist, it makes me _bone-_ tired." _that's not the whole truth,_ sans thought, but now didn't have to be the time to tell all his secrets, _they'll find out soon enough._

"Gaster kind of scares me…" Frisk mumbled, sans could barely hear them. He flinched at these words. That was his best friend, his coworker of years, they had been through so much together, but sans knew Frisk didn't know that.

"he's better when he's not scattered all through time and space. plus my machine makes him look corrupted. if i ever get him back i bet you'll change your mind." He looked at Frisk and winked at them.

"Who were those people in that photo? The one in the drawer?" Frisk put their hand on sans' knee and looked at them.

"coworkers, we all worked with gaster, but uh, after he used my machine and disappeared, i stopped working on my invention. i couldn't handle the thought of killing my best friend. that's when they started to try to fix it. the same thing happened to them… but they aren't determined enough to gather themselves to be rescued like gaster. that man had more determination than any monster i had ever seen, even undyne. and i'll keep trying to get him back… i have to..."

Frisk still got a bad feeling from Gaster but the way sans talked about him… it was sad. Frisk must have been put off by the threatening picture of him on the monitor. _Poor sans,_ Frisk thought, _he's been through so much_. "Does anyone else know?"

sans slowly shook his head, "everyone forgot about him and the others when they were scattered. everyone but me…" sans looked at Frisk who was yawning, "anyways, it's getting late, you should get some sleep, kiddo." Frisk nodded sleepily at him and laid down. In moments Frisk was snoring.

sans pulled his knees up to his chest and stared at the ground. he was shaking softly. _it was all my fault.. that damn machine.. took everyone from me, but here i am, still working on it.. i should give up.. pouring the determination in it was obviously a bad idea. nice thinking, gas… it won't be too hard to repair, but what effect did the determination have on gaster?_ Gaster's horrified face popped into sans' head. He was terrified, if they could have heard him, sans was sure he would have been screaming.

Similar thoughts plagued his night. Another night without sleep.. great.


	7. Chapter 7

[A/N: I have no excuse for being so late, I just have a lot of ideas but I'm having trouble writing the middle parts to get there.]

For a while sans just watched Frisk sleep, he watched their chest rise and fall, their face twitch every now and then. It was calming for sans to see them so at peace. Then Frisk started turning from side to side, grunting and furrowing their eyebrows. They were having a bad dream. Sans laid down and pulled the human into his arms and held them tightly. They stopped squirming and let out a small sigh and their breathing calmed again.

sans looked out the window, the sun was rising, it filled the room with a pink tint. sans was lost in his thoughts. He was scared of being alone again. He had lost everyone he cared about trying to rescue Gaster, everyone except Papyrus. sans didn't know what he would do without his brother… it was only a matter of time before the kid reset, and one of those resets they're going to get bored… those were the timelines that Pap…

sans blood began to boil. Tears threatened the edge of his sockets. The thing between his arms, that was a monster; and not in the good sense. How could sans try to forget? They once killed everyone sans loved, and now they think they can just live a happy life among all of the monsters they've killed countless times before?

sans shivered. He didn't want to be alone. He couldn't stand the thought of being without Papyrus. Pap was always there for sans, he hated his jokes but loved him anyways, sometimes he would crack his own joke just to humor sans. He was always there to comfort sans when he broke down even if Pap didn't understand why, and he never asked. He never tried to pry things out of sans, he was just there to make him feel better.

All the other monsters may not remember what they did, but sans knew. How could he possibly forgive them? How can he live with himself to be the best friend of the same murderer?

No, this was Frisk! The kid who laughs at all of sans' jokes. The kid that loves puzzles and pasta. The kid that freed the monsters from the underground. They had to be the most selfless person sans knew… in this timeline.

sans hugged Frisk even tighter and let out a small sob into their back, wetting their shirt. He loved Frisk.. he couldn't help it… He didn't want to be alone…. _kid_ please _don't let me down. don't reset. keep your promise._

Frisk began to squirm in sans' grip, he let go and they took in a big breath. "humans need to breath" they said as they rolled over and looked at sans. His face was wet with tears. "sans? what's wrong?"

"kid… we need to talk." sans sat up and wiped the tears away from his face. "I know what you did… I know that you killed everyone…. a lot." Frisk flinched, their breathing became uneven and their eyes were filled with fear. Tears started rolling down their face. They felt guilty. _good,_ sans thought. "why do you do it? aren't they your friends? don't you care about them?" Frisk's soft crying turned into a gross sobbing, every now and then they would gasp for air in between sobs.

"I…. I never wanted to! It always starts as an accident! I.. I kill a monster in the ruins, not on purpose! Then my exp increases…. and that's when everything goes wrong" it took them a minute to steady their breathing and to calm their cries. sans just watched, hoping there was a good explanation. "Chara starts to take control when my exp and lv increase…" They looked away from sans.

"chara…? tori and asgore's kid?" sans asked, confused. Frisk nodded, sans let them talk.

"... Chara would encourage me to kill monsters, to gain more lv, they took control of me. I could only watch as they killed everyone I loved… all of my friends… I didn't want to!"

"...but… i don't understand. chara's been dead for years...how is that possible?"

"My determination brought them back to life." Frisk explained. They were relieved to see that sans wasn't angry, just confused.

"damn, kiddo, that's some heavy stuff… is chara… i mean do they still…?" sans had trouble wording the questions. Frisk understood.

"I don't know… I dream about them a lot. More now that we're on the surface. But I've never killed a monster, i'm lv 1, no exp, so they can't control me. I can still hear what they're thinking in my head every now and then. They tell me to kill. I ignore them. I have no plans to kill anything" sans nodded at Frisk.

"okay, you're off the hook for this one. i forgive ya, bucko. but only because it wasn't you killing everyone, it was chara."

Frisk was relieved to finally tell someone about their impure thoughts, about the guilt of past timelines. They were so happy that sans was understanding. They didn't know what they would do without sans, he was the only one that understood how saves and resets worked, he was the only one that Frisk could come to.

"Do you want to go trick-or-treating on Halloween?" Frisk asked changing the subject.

"halloween?"

"It's a holiday where people dress up as monsters and get free candy!" Frisk smiled at sans excited about the upcoming holiday.

"no way, humans dress up as monsters?" Frisk nodded, "why?"

"It's a human tradition! A long time ago humans were afraid the dead would come back and haunt them so they dress up as monsters to scare them away, or something like that. The history isn't really important, but it's a lot of fun!"

"sure kid, i'll come with ya. what're you going to dress up as?" Frisk looked at the ceiling and scrunched their face up in thought.

"I don't know yet. Let's go costume shopping in New Hope!" Frisk jumped up out of bed and yanked sans with them and ran into Papyrus' room, he was still snoring.

"hey kid, let him sleep. we'll go when he wakes up" Frisk nodded and walked out of the room and sans quietly shut the door behind them.

"I have to go home and take a shower anyways, I'll text Undyne and Alphys too! Just meet me at my house in a couple of hours okay?" sans nodded and Frisk gave him a short hug goodbye. They ran down the stairs and rummaged through the refrigerator.

sans watched the human take the container in the fridge that Papyrus had left for them and walk out of the house. He walked into Papyrus' room and sat on his bed. He was snoring loudly but looked like he was dreaming of happy things. sans smiled at him and laid down next to him. He hugged Papyrus and buried his face in Papyrus' back, he listened to the soft hum of magic flowing through his bones. _Thank God you're alive in this timeline. I can't live without you, Pap. I love you so much…_ sans was quickly being lured to sleep, his brother filled his mind with positive thoughts. He would just take a short nap, it wouldn't hurt anything. And so the two skeleton brothers slept in a little longer

Frisk went into their dresser and picked out a black and orange striped sweater and went into the bathroom. They hopped in the shower and let the hot water run over them. _Don't you know what's going to happen?_ Chara's voice echoed in their head, _you let them free but don't you know how humans are? They don't adapt well to new things, they're selfish, and power hungry. By freeing them from the underground you are killing them. Humans will hunt them for their souls, monsters will go extinct. Why do you think they were sealed in the underground in the first place? For their protections, not the humans'._

Frisk squeezed their head between their hands trying to block out the thoughts. No, this is what the monsters wanted, they had been working to break the barrier for so long, they were happy on the surface. All the humans in New Hope were more than thrilled to have the monsters as neighbors…

 _If you kill a monster you can take on the humans. You can make it a safer place for monsters. All you have to do is sacrifice one monster soul to save the rest. Toriel had the same idea didn't she? Take one soul to cross the barrier and peacefully find the rest? What's the difference? She wanted to save the monsters too._

Maybe… Chara was right? What they're saying makes sense…. No, there's no proof that humans would do that. Maybe they will surprise everyone. Frisk would wait to see what happens. But maybe Chara's idea wasn't so bad afterall..?

Frisk turned off the shower and quickly dried off, rubbing the towel through their short hair making it fluffy before combing it down. They pulled on their sweater and pants, brushed their teeth and grabbed their phone. They sent a text to Alphys and Undyne to meet at Frisk's house if they were free so they could go shopping. Frisk's phone lit up, it was from Undyne:

"Be there in a sec"

Frisk texted sans and Papyrus to let them know Undyne and Alphys would be over soon. Frisk walked out of the bathroom and there was a knock on the door. _That was quick,_ Frisk thought.

They opened the door to see Undyne and Alphys at the front door, Alphys was wearing a white turtleneck sweater and Undyne was wearing her black tank top. Alphys gave a small wave and Undyne had a huge smile on her face.

"Hey, punk! I haven't been able to spend quality time with ya since we got to the surface! Mostly my fault, fu hu hu, sorry about that. So what are the plans for today?"

Frisk explained the tradition of Halloween to them and Alphys got really excited.

"O-oh! It's just like cosplay r-right?" Frisk nodded at her and Undyne gave Alphys a hard slap on the back.

"Well if Alphys likes it I know I'll like it too! And hey! Free candy right?"

Frisk asked the two if they were hungry, Alphys declined but Undyne said she could eat. Frisk heated up some of Papyrus' alfredo and handed a plate to the fish lady.

"Papyrus made THIS? Wow! My lessons must be better than I thought! I didn't know the dork would keep cooking after I left. When I left the house we had just burnt his kitchen!" Frisk laughed.

When Undyne was done Frisk cleaned up and washed the dishes. They turned on the TV and watched Mettaton shows. It was just to pass time afterall. _But where were the skeleton brothers? Shouldn't they be here by now?_

Undyne voiced Frisk's exact thoughts, "Where the hell are they? That's it I'm going over there and kicking their butts!" Undyne stormed out of the house and ran next door, there was a loud crash and Undyne was cursing again.

Frisk and Alphys quickly ran outside to see Undyne's fist stuck through the skeleton brothers' house, right above the first hole where she kicked a hole through it.

"DO NOT WORRY BROTHER, I THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SAVE YOU FROM THE BURGLARS!" Papyrus came running down the stairs with his bone attacks ready. He dropped them and ran over to the door when he saw Undyne, "OH! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

"Your door is too weak Papyrus! I'll buy you a better door when we go shopping." She pulled her fist out of the door, "Are you guys ready? We've been waiting for you!"

Papyrus looked around confused, "ERM, DID WE HAVE PLANS?" he asked scratching his skull.

Alphys explained the concept of Halloween and how they were going out to buy costumes. Papyrus was thrilled and ran back into his room to change out of his pajamas, while also waking up sans.

The group all walked down to New Hope excitedly talking about what they were going to dress up as. Frisk had been thinking about dressing up as a skeleton, but they wanted to surprise the skeleton brothers. Frisk told Undyne she would look good as a pirate, she already had the eyepatch for it.

They reached the town and walked down a street to a line of shops. The whole town was decorated for halloween, there were orange lights and jack-o-lanterns everywhere. Everyone was staring at the decorations, there were ghosts, skeletons, zombies, etc.

"WOW SANS LOOK! IT'S US!" Papyrus was pointing at a skeleton costume display outside of one of the shops.

"i want _tibia_ skeleton for halloween" sans said eyeing up the costume nodding approvingly.

The group poured inside the shop, there were only a few people inside but they all stared at the monsters. A teenager walked up to Undyne and held his hand up for a high five "Dude! Your costume is awesome! Are you a fish pirate?!" Undyne slapped his hand and he screamed in pain.

"Fuhuhu! Something like that!" Undyne was clutching her sides laughing as the human walked away holding his hand that was burning red.

While everyone was looking through the costumes around the store, Frisk found a skeleton costume and snuck up to the counter to pay for it along with some black and white face paint.

Undyne did end up buying a pirate costume, Papyrus also bought a skeleton costume, and sans and Alphys didn't buy anything. They both said they already had costumes.

The group walked down the road with the shops until they saw a nice cream shop. "Wow, already? How did he get a place so fast?" Undyne asked walking right up to him and ordering her a vanilla and Alphys a strawberry. She paid for them and they sat down at one of the outdoor tables in front of the shop. Papyrus got a mint chocolate chip, and sans bought Frisk a chocolate. They all sat around the table reading the wrappers to each other.

"You look nice today," Undyne read hers to Alphys, Alphys blushed and fidgeted with her own wrapper.

"U-uh um, i-is this as sw-sweet as you?" Alphys read her wrapper then quickly looked down. Undyne kissed her cheek and Alphys got even redder and almost fell out of her chair. Undyne slapped her knee and tried to hold back her laughter.

Papyrus looked to sans and read his, "Love yourself! I love you!" sans was scooped up into a big hug and swung around by Papyrus, sans chuckled.

"my brother is so cool." he said finally when Papyrus put him down. The group enjoyed their nice cream and walked around some town some more enjoying the decorations. They came across a hardware store and Frisk grabbed Undyne's arm and pulled her towards it.

"Where are you dragging me?" Undyne asked until she walked inside and saw a wall full of doors (among other things like ceiling fans and such-think Home Depot-) She gaped at her selection of doors and ran over to one that was completely metal. "This one. This is the one they need"

sans shrugged and Papyrus said it didn't matter to him, and so Undyne bought this insanely thick metal door and carried it above her head for the rest of the day. They were on their way home as it was starting to get dark when Frisk was stopped by a kid a little younger than them, Frisk guessed they were probably 12.

"Uh, uhm, you guys are from Ebott right? Uh, my mom said we are moving there soon, but we gotta wait for the goat people to get back? Do you know when they're coming back?"

Frisk nodded, "They'll be back tomorrow, you can talk to them then" The kid smiled up at Frisk and the monsters and ran back to their mom who was talking to a group of people. They tugged on the back of her shirt and pointed at the monsters, the mother looked at the monster then down to the kid smiled and hugged the kid, she waved to the monsters. Papyrus and Frisk waved back, the others just watched.

They left New Hope and started up the path back to Ebott. "WOW! HUMANS WANT TO LIVE WITH US! I'M SO EXCITED TO HAVE MORE OF YOUR KIND IN OUR TOWN FRISK!" Papyrus exclaimed. "OH! I DIDN'T SEE YOUR COSTUME, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO BE?" Papyrus reached for the bag containing the skeleton costume and Frisk yanked it away just in time and shook their head at him.

"It's a secret," Frisk said.

"OH BUT I AM VERY GOOD AT KEEPING SECRETS! LET ME KNOW!" Frisk shook their head at Papyrus again, "AWH ALRIGHT, WELL MY COSTUME IS A SECRET TOO!" Papyrus pulled his bag up to his chest and hugged it, he was too tall for Frisk to be able to reach it up there.

"hey kid," sans said catching up to frisk "don't worry about him, he's just _skull_ king" sans snickered and Frisk giggled quietly.

"SANS! STOP PLAGUING MY LIFE WITH INCIDENTAL PUNS!" Papyrus rolled his eyes at the two.

They walked to Ebott excitedly planning for Halloween and decorating, it was dark when they got back. Everyone was tired, all but Undyne and Papyrus, as soon as they got back to their cluster of houses, Undyne ripped off the old door to the skelebros house and installed the new metal door and kicked it open. She was satisfied that it didn't even leave a dent, she then tried punching it, again no dent. She started kicking and punching the door, then she summoned a spear. Alphys ran in front of her.

"W-wait! We're not trying to break thi-this door!" Alphys said, sweating nervously.

"Just making sure this door is tough enough to deal with me!" Undyne said simply as she was dragged off by Alphys. They waved goodbye and went into the lab.

"pap? 's okay if i sleep with you tonight?" sans asked.

"OF COURSE BROTHER! I WILL PROTECT YOU FROM THOSE PESKY NIGHTMARES!"

"heh. thanks bro. you're the best." sans said, "night kiddo, see ya tomorrow"

"SLEEP TIGHT, HUMAN!"

Frisk said goodbye and walked inside. They turned on the TV and turned it to a human channel for once, it was cartoons. They shrugged as they pulled the couch out to make a bed and fell asleep watching some show about a burger shop.


	8. Chapter 8

Frisk awoke to Toriel and Asgore coming home. Asgore had made a lot of noise carrying his suitcase and bumping into the walls, Frisk heard Toriel hushing him.

"Our child is still sleeping, you mustn't wake them!" Toriel scolded. Frisk jumped out of bed and ran straight to Toriel and gave her a big hug, "Oh! Good morning my child! Did you miss us?" Frisk nodded and let go running over to Asgore and giving him a big hug as well, Asgore swooped them up in his arms and hugged them back.

"I've missed you too, little one!" He said as he gave Frisk one last squeeze and set them back on the floor.

"Frisk, there are some matters we must address, for instance, legally who are you supposed to be with?"

Frisk shrugged, "I'm an orphan."

"Oh, I see. Then we must find the orphanage you came from so I can adopt you properly. Then I can get your birth certificate and we can get you a passport! You can see the world with us, my child." She smiled at Frisk, "do you remember the name of the town you came from?"

Frisk nodded, "Floraville, on the other side of the mountain." they pointed towards Mt. Ebott.

"I see, well first things first Asgore and I need to study for a driving exam so we can get our license, that will probably take," she sighed "a few weeks to a month to learn? I'm sure the orphanage is not missing you right, my child?" Frisk shook their head, "good, now what would you like for dinner?"

"Stew, made with fire magic! And pumpkin pie! I can show you how to make Jack-O-Lanterns!" Frisk giggled.

"That sounds like a _stew_ -per idea" She looked at Frisk proud and expectantly, Frisk couldn't help but laugh at Toriel's puns, or any puns for that matter.

Toriel's phone began to ring, "Oh! How do I- turn on the screen? Frisk help please!" Frisk chuckled and pushed the button on the side and hit the accept button.

"It's Papyrus." They said, Toriel took the phone and put it up to her ear.

"Hello?" She said simply.

"TORIEL, WILL YOU TEACH ME HOW TO COOK? UNDYNE WON'T DO IT ANYMORE!" Toriel immediately pulled the phone away from her ear, Frisk could hear him as if he were on speaker phone.

"Well of course, but er why did she stop?" Toriel looked a little worried, what had she gotten herself into?

"SHE FEELS BAD BECAUSE SHE BURNT MY KITCHEN TWICE AND HER HOUSE DOWN ONCE, SHE THINKS YOU WOULD BE A BETTER TEACHER!"

Toriel let out a silent sigh of relief, "Oh, I see. Well I was going to make stew and pumpkin pie later if you want to stop by this afternoon?"

"OH GOODY! OKAY SEE YA LATER!" Toriel chuckled and put her phone back in her pocket.

"Well, child, we have all morning, what would you like to do?" Toriel kneeled down in front of Frisk.

"Let's go get decorations for Halloween!" Frisk suggested. Toriel exchanged a confused look with Asgore.

"Hallo-what?" Asgore asked. And so Frisk explained the tradition of Halloween and the important part was dressing up and getting free candy.

"Humans have the strangest traditions, but it sounds fun! Sure let's go!" Toriel said, she carried her suitcase into her room, Asgore put his away as well.

"Oh! Before I forget!" Toriel hurried out of her room carrying a small snow globe, "I got you a souvenir! It is of Washington DC! I hope you like it!" She kissed Frisk's head and gave it a pat, Frisk smiled in thanks and put the snow globe on their nightstand and gave it a shake. They watched the sparkles fall over the white house then walked out of the room and closed the door behind them. Asgore and Toriel were sitting in their armchairs in the living room.

"Are you ready, small one?" Asgore asked. Frisk nodded and the two goat monsters stood up and gestured for Frisk to lead the way. Frisk opened the door and walked a little down the path and waited for the two to catch up. Frisk noticed they were holding hands.

They walked to New Hope together, many monsters came up to Asgore and Toriel and asked what was next, they briefed the monsters on how the meetings went and their plans to expand Ebott for humans and monsters alike to live. There were many approving nods and smiles, a lot of the monsters thanked Frisk for the millionth time as well.

The three entered the town and was immediately greeted by the kid Frisk recognized from the day before.

"Hi! I was really excited to move into Ebott but my mom says I had to wait until the goat people came back, that's you guys right?"

"Ah, yes, of course, you may move in immediately, we already have some homes built, you can choose from whichever you find suits you best." He smiled at the child and held out his hand to the mother that was running towards them, "You must be the mother? I'm Asgore, a pleasure to meet you!"

She was struggling to catch her breath, "Oh, I'm so sorry if they bothered you at all, yes hi I'm Sarah-" she knelt over and wheezed some more before catching her breath and talking normally, "I was wondering if you had plans to open up a school? If not it's not a problem, Ebott is five minutes down the road, I can always drive the kids to school."

Toriel perked up at this question, "Ah, yes well I will be the principal at the new school but I still need to earn my teaching license and so the school won't be open until next school year in September."

"That sounds perfect, we will come into town in the next couple of days and pick a house to stay in, have a good rest of your day!" Sarah waved goodbye and the three smiled and waved in return. Frisk pulled Toriel's arm towards the shops.

Asgore was in awe of all of the jack-o-lanterns, they were his favorite decoration. Toriel liked the lights the most. Frisk pulled the two into a decoration shop where they bought some white lights that had paper lantern ghosts, orange lights, and tea candles. They left the shop and walked to the grocery store down the street where Toriel bought Pumpkins, cinnamon, pie crusts, whipped cream, celery, carrots, potatoes, and typical ingredients for pumpkin pie and stew.

When they were walking up the aisle to the checkout lane, Frisk heard a cry for help. It was someone they recognized, but from where? It was a small polite cry from the next aisle over.

"Pl-please, don't, someone help me!" she called. Frisk immediately ran around the corner and saw the flame girl from Hotland, she was surrounded by three teenagers who were trying to pour water on her. The purple girl with the snapback and the skateboard was being held against a shelf by one kid who was twice her size.

"Don't worry, someone will help us, you'll make it through this!" Some of the water splashed onto her head, it sizzled and she screamed, her flame died down a bit. "Stop it you're hurting her! Fuck, if we don't make it… I want you to know… I will always love you," she called out to the flame girl. Frisk pushed the kid holding the jug and the gallon fell out of his hand and landed on its side spilling water all over the floor.

"What the hell's your problem kid? Do you know who you're messing with? Beat it!" He turned towards Frisk and tried to shoo them away. Frisk ran in front of the flame girl. The teen shrugged, "You see them asking for it right, boys?" His crew all mumbled yeah or nodded. He walked closer to Frisk and gestured at himself, "Go on, I'll let you have the first hit." Frisk shook their head.

"Leave them alone," Frisk said simply refusing to move. The girl's flame was starting to blaze at a normal rate now, recovering from her earlier assault.

"Or what?" They retorted back. Frisk stood in silence. "That's it," the teen swung at Frisk, but they dodged and dragged the flame girl out of the way, she ran back to the skateboard girl and Frisk moved to the middle of the aisle, the other kids were lined up by the shelves giving the two space, they were chanting "fight".

Frisk winked at the teen and he blinked confused. He took a step forward and tried to hit Frisk in the stomach, Frisk ducked under their arm and twirled behind their back, he turned, dazed and confused. Frisk blew him a kiss and he looked down, there was a pink undertone darkening his cheeks.

"Forget it guys, I'm not feelin' it anymore" he said and his crew shrugged and started to file out of the aisle, one of the guys knocked the skateboard girl into the shelf and she knocked some pasta boxes onto the floor. The flame girl gasped and quickly helped clean up.

The leader of the thugs was the last to leave, they bumped into Frisk when they passed them, they shoved something into Frisk's hand and winked before leaving. Frisk opened their hand to reveal a balled up piece of paper with numbers scrawled on it and the name "Nate" written on it.

"Thanks so much for saving me, I really thought I was going to be dust... " the flame girl said after making sure the skateboard girl was alright.

"Seriously, thanks, I don't know what I would've done without her," the purple monster said as she took the flame girl's hand and gave her a peck on the cheek. Her flame turned blue around her cheeks and the two thanked Frisk again before leaving, giggling and chatting about how scared they were and how much they loved each other.

Frisk turned around to see a small crowd had gathered, with Toriel and Asgore beaming in front. "My child! You handled that so well, I am so proud of you! You would have made an excellent ambassador if you were legally able to be one, considering you are not technically an adult yet. You have quite the set of skills for defusing bad situations" Toriel winked at Frisk.

"Yes! Very good small one!" Asgore said as he ran up to Frisk and swept them off their feet into a big hug, he squeezed them lightly and spun in a circle before putting them back down and patting their head. The small crowd politely applauded and dispersed.

Frisk, Toriel, and Asgore all walked to the checkout where Toriel paid with a fancy new card she got while she was away, Frisk guessed. They gathered the groceries along with the bags with the decorations and started up the path to head home. Asgore carried most of the bags in his arms, Toriel carried a few and Frisk was carrying the two decoration bags. When they were at the sign welcoming people to New Hope a black pick-up truck drove up next to them and beeped at them, it was Sarah and her kid, Frisk didn't remember the kid's name, did the kid tell them? Frisk wasn't sure.

"You guys are walking? Well you're going back to Ebott right? I can give you a ride if you want, we were just headed up that way to go look at the houses you built. Uh, mayor Asgore was it? I don't know that your, erm, horns will fit in the cab of my truck but you can sit in the bed, it's only a few miles up the road," She eyed up Asgore's size and looked to Toriel and Frisk, "you two and the groceries should be able to fit in the back seat."

Toriel thanked Sarah and opened the back door for Frisk to climb into, Toriel put some of the groceries in the middle seat and some on her lap, Frisk was hugging the bags that held the decorations in between their legs. Asgore happily accepted his seat in the bed, when he sat down, he weighed the back of the truck down so it was almost touching the ground. It looked comical.

The girl in the front seat turned around to Frisk, they had dark freckles all over their nose spreading out across their cheeks, they had light blonde hair that was tied into two pigtails. "I'm Rose, you're Frisk right? I can't wait to go to school with you next year!" the girl babbled on about what she was learning in school now, her friends, hobbies, etc. Frisk tuned them out for most of the ride.

"Aaaaand here we are! See that wasn't so bad was it Asgore?" Sarah called out her open window, Asgore hopped out of the bed (and the truck bounced back up afterwards) and opened the back door for Toriel, he smiled at Sarah and gave her a thumbs up. Asgore gathered the groceries from the middle seat. Frisk scooted out of the car with their two bags.

"Where were the houses again? Up the street a little right?" Toriel directed her towards the four empty houses in between the entrance to the underground and the line of houses of residents from hotland, the core, etc.

Frisk opened the front door since the other two had their hands full and helped put away some of the groceries. Asgore both the orange lights and the ghost lanterns around the roof of the house like he had seen on the houses and shops in New Hope. The lights aligned perfectly so that in between every ghost lantern there was an orange light. Frisk put a couple of pumpkins outside on either side of the door for decoration before they cut them into jack-o-lanterns.

Toriel texted Papyrus and he said he had to get ready before he would come over, but he would bring sans to play with Frisk while Toriel and Papyrus cooked. Frisk sat on the couch in front of the TV and watched Mettaton, he was hosting a singing game show. Toriel and Asgore were both in their armchairs, which were now pushed together as opposed to opposite sides of the room, where they were studying their driving manuals awaiting the skeleton brothers' arrival.


	9. Chapter 9

[Author's Note: I split this up into two unnecessary chapters because I wanted you guys to know I was still alive but I didn't have the energy to finish their day so sorry about that, so here ya go, this is a ridiculously short chapter]

Papyrus could be heard as soon as he left his house, "SANS GET UP! WE HAD PLANS TO HANGOUT WITH THE DREMURRS TODAY! ARGH OKAY I WILL CARRY YOU" There was a knock on the door before it swung open. Toriel stood to greet them, Asgore looked up at them. sans was on top of Papyrus' shoulders, he gave a lazy wave.

"hey, tori. i'm here to stab pumpkins and eat pie" Frisk ran over to Papyrus and hugged his legs, he picked them up and gave them a hug, sans nuzzled their forehead while they were up there. Frisk giggled and ran into the kitchen to grab three pumpkins and carving tools.

 _ **Where do they keep the knives**_ , Frisk..? thought. They searched the cabinets and opened the drawers, there they were. They were glistening in the light. Frisk grabbed five of them. _**Here we are! About time…**_ Frisk shook their head. The walked back into the living room and handed out the knives and pumpkins, Asgore and Toriel had grabbed the two pumpkins that were outside on the porch to carve.

Frisk demonstrated the first cut, it was a hole in the top of the pumpkin. Everyone followed along, they all scooped the seeds out with their hands, sans didn't do anything-he just watched everyone with him pumpkin in front of him, they threw the seeds into a large bowl. Frisk handed out some pens for everyone to draw their design to cut out.

Papyrus' jack-o-lantern looked just like his face, sans' was just a pumpkin with "sans" written on it in pen, Asgore's was a jolly looking basic jack-o-lantern and Toriel's was a cute ghost, and Frisk's was a creepy looking one. Frisk put tea candles in all of them, they put the candle on top of sans' pumpkin, and set them up on the porch.

Frisk looked back at the house now that it was starting to get dark. It was pretty, they had never done anything like this before… Very festive, Frisk gave a nod of approval and walked back inside.

"Come on then Papyrus, I am about to make the stew, do you still want to learn?" Papyrus perked up.

"DO I? OF COURSE!" He ran into the kitchen and started rummaging through the refrigerator grabbing carrots, celery and potatoes.

Toriel followed Papyrus into the kitchen, "Frisk likes it better when it's made with fire magic, but you can make it on the stove on high for a few hours when the meat is brown all the way through" sans hopped onto the couch and turned on the TV. He turned it to a human cartoon that Frisk was vaguely familiar with. It was some show about alien rocks or gems or something, Frisk was only half paying attention, they were listening to the ruckus in the kitchen.

"Now, Papyrus, you don't have to chop the vegetables so fiercely, and you chop them with a knife not your hand! Oh dear, what has Undyne taught you?" There was some clanging around and eventually Toriel's scolds turned into praise, "Very good, now just add some celery, and spices, ah perfect! Now I just let my flames cook it and it should be ready in a few hours."

"WOWIE, WHO KNEW I COULD COOK BEYOND THE REALMS OF PASTA."

"And now we make the pie,"

The show was halfway over when Asgore began to snore. It was loud enough to drown out the TV. Frisk let out a small huff and got up, took sans' hand and lead him in the bedroom.

"don't get too _frisky_ , pal, heh.. where we goin'?" he walked into the room and Frisk closed the door behind them.

"I got into a fight today," Frisk said, looking over sans' face for an expression, his lights shrunk ever-so-slightly.

"oh?"

Frisk nodded, "some humans were bullying a monster couple. I think one of them was Grillby's kid, if I didn't step in they would've been… would've been.." Frisk's voice was scratchy, they swallowed, they started to sweat, "..dust. And then that kid would've turned into.. something terrible... "

"did you hurt him?" he stared straight through Frisk, they shivered but shook their head. "so what happened?"

The edges of their lips curled into a smirk, "I did what I do best."

"and what's that?"

"Flirt" Frisk winked at sans, sans lost it and put his hand up to his forehead.

"heh, what, did the fight end in him giving you his phone number?" Frisk's smirk turned into a shit eating grin and they nodded, they pulled the crumpled up piece of paper out of their pocket and handed it to sans.

"heh. good work kid. you thinkin' what i'm thinkin?" he pulled out his phone and looked at Frisk, "prank call?" Frisk perked up and scooched next to sans and whispered "yesss!"

sans typed the number into his phone and he put it on speaker. It ran twice before he picked up, "Hello?"

"hey, is this mr. wall?"

"Uh, no? There's no, there's no one by that name here…"

"oh. can i talk to mrs. wall then?"

"Who? No, there's no one by the name of Walls..!"

"oh. can i talk to harry walls then?"

"There are no Walls here!"

"then what's holding up your house buddy?" Frisk burst into laughter, "aw he hung up on , me" there were tears in his eyes as he died from laughter himself.

Frisk rolled into their back clutching their sides, "heh it wasn't that funny kiddo." he laughed some more until they both calmed down, "okay it was pretty funny"

There was a knock on the door, "SANS, FRISK..? CAN I HANG OUT TOO? I'M DONE COOKING WITH TORIEL, SHE'S JUST USING HER FLAMES NOW SO I CAN'T DO ANYTHING ELSE TO HELP"

"yeah bro come on in" the door swung open and Papyrus strutted in, he was carrying a box of cards, Frisk recognized it as Uno, the orphanage had this card game that Frisk would sometimes play. "do you know the rules?"

"ERM. WELL…. NO.." He looked down at Frisk, "DO YOU?" Frisk nodded and explained the rules to them, they shuffled the cards and handed seven to each person, they flipped the top card of the deck over, it was yellow. Frisk had to draw a card, sans and Papyrus both put down a yellow card. Frisk matched the card's number and changed the color to blue. sans put a draw two card down.

"heh, _two_ bad bro." Papyrus shook his fist "SANS!" He drew two cards. "aw don't look so _blue_ , bro" Frisk slapped their hand over their mouth to muffle their laughter. They played Uno for a couple of hours until dinner was ready, sans mostly won, somehow, Frisk won occasionally and Papyrus rarely won, he always felt too bad for using "skip" or "draw two" cards on them so he never played them.

They all sat in the living room and ate the home cooked (with fire magic) stew. Frisk ate three helpings before they felt like their stomach was going to explode, it filled their whole body with warmth, though. Asgore went straight to bed after dinner, he almost ate the entire pot, he would have had he not been scolded by Toriel.

It made everyone sleepy, Frisk ended up falling asleep on sans' shoulder who fell asleep on Papyrus' shoulder. Papyrus carried the two into Frisk's room and tucked them in, he nuzzled both of their foreheads and closed the door.

"TORIEL, WOULD YOU READ ME A BEDTIME STORY" He said as he pulled out the couch and laid down, pulling the blanket up to his chin.

"Of course" Toriel pulled her chair closer to the bed and opened up a children's book and began to read. Within sentences Papyrus was sound asleep, the occasional "nyeh" escaped his mouth as he dreamed.

Toriel looked up when she finished the story. Papyrus rolled over and hugged one of his pillows. She smiled, put the book down on the chair and walked into her own room to retire for the evening.

Frisk dreamed they were Chara. They were back in Floraville. They walked into their small cabin and was immediately greeted by their younger brother. They were thirteen and meant everything to Chara, Frisk could feel their adore as they looked into his eyes and saw pure wonder, innocence, and happiness. It warmed their heart. Chara stepped inside and gave him a hug, the door swung shut behind them.

There was a knock on the door. It swung open and it was two faceless humans in uniforms, they ripped Chara's brother out of their arms and shoved a gun in his hands. Frisk watched from Chara's eyes as their brother was forced into the war with the monsters. He was ordered to kill but refused, he only ran out to save the humans that were injured.

The war ravaged near the village, many soldiers were injured. Chara ran our of the house and spotted their brother. They watched as he ran in front of a monster to drag a soldier away that had a cut along his chest which was bleeding immensely. He grabbed some bandages from his pouch and addressed the wound. Eventually the blood stopped showing up on the clean white bandages, but a sword was shoved right through his heart. Frisk could feel their heart drop, everything they loved, the only thing that gave them hope, the only reason to live, it was ripped away from them by the humans, because of a war the humans started, and now.. and now.. how could they? The town made a memorial for all of the fallen soldiers. It was a bed of yellow flowers in the middle of town with a plaque that said "For all those lost in the Monster-Human war. May we never forget"

Chara closed their eyes and when they were opened they were standing at the top of Mt. Ebott. They saw the hole at the peak of the mountain and knew this was the only way. The humans had to pay for what they had done, not only to Chara but also to all of the monster. They had slaughtered so many. In the end, only seven humans survived that had absorbed souls. They were the seven sorcerers that sealed the monsters underground.

They jumped into the mountain and felt the wind rush around them, they landed on their feet in a bedroom. Asriel stood before them, smiling and showing them a picture they drew. Chara realized they were holding their own picture, they held it up to show it to Asriel, it was a drawing of a flower. Asriel smiled at them. Their heart skipped a beat, this kid, reminded them of their brother. So full of hope and wonder.. they made them happy..

Chara's memories whipped around them, changing the scenes from baking the cake for Asgore and putting butter cups in it, to Asgore being sick to Chara getting the idea to poison themselves. They were standing before a single yellow flower, they plucked it from the ground and stared at it before throwing into their mouth and swallowing. They immediately felt the poison attach to their blood cells, Frisk cringed and began to sweat in their sleep.

Chara fell down and a bed materialized to catch them, they were in their bed with everyone watching over them. They were all worried. In Chara's last moments they remembered the memorial in their hometown. They thought of how nice it would be to die on their brother's grave. They asked for this to Asriel. They made sure he was alone. He was the one Chara wanted to take their soul. They only trusted him with it.

Chara died and Frisk was forced out of their body to become an invisible spectator, Chara's body lost all color and their soul hovered above their body. Asriel wept over Chara before their souls hovered towards each other, they spun around a few times before merging. Asriel began to change into his ultimate form, he stopped crying and sat up straight. He would fulfill his best friend's request if it was the last thing he did.

He picked up Chara's body and the scene changed to outside of Floraville. The town panicked, they attacked Asriel, in that moment Chara tried, desperately to fight Asriel's urge to go home. This was their once chance to make the humans pay for what they did. They hurt everyone, they were hurting Asriel right now! They hurt the monsters and sealed them away! They hurt Chara's brother… couldn't Asriel see that?

But he refused.


	10. Chapter 10

Frisk awoke with a cloudy head. They weren't sure what to think of Chara. They had been a cold-blooded killer. They killed everyone Frisk cared about. They hated all of humanity. They were evil….right? And who could say any of this dream was true? Maybe Chara was just messing with them…

They sat up and wiped the sweat from their forehead. Their shift caused sans to let out a loud snore and roll over. Frisk stood up and walked to the bathroom. They looked in the mirror, _**it's me, Chara**_ , a voice echoed in the back of Frisk's mind. Perhaps it was the light or Frisk's imagination but their eyes looked almost...red. They looked down and clutched the sides of the sink. They swallowed hard and looked back at the mirror, despite everything, it was still Frisk.

They turned on the faucet and splashed cold water on their face and dried off with a towel hanging nearby.

They walked out of the bathroom to be greeted by Toriel, "Hello, Frisk! Good morning! Are you ready to go trick-or-treating tonight?" She was always smiling. Seeing her instantly made any bad feelings left over from the dream vanish. Frisk gave her a big hug in which she did not question. She returned the hug and kneeled down to Frisk's height, "Now, what would you like for breakfast?"

Frisk thought briefly before the idea popped into their head, "Pancakes!" Toriel chuckled.

"And would you like to help me, my child?" Frisk nodded enthusiastically. Frisk wasn't a particularly good cook, but pancakes were easy enough. Why would Frisk need to cook when they're pampered with Toriel, Undyne, and Papyrus' cooking… well.. maybe not Undyne.

Frisk grabbed some eggs from the refrigerator and a bowl from the cabinet underneath the sink. They cracked the eggs into the bowl, " _Egg_ celent" Toriel snickered as she began measuring ingredients at a skilled rate and pouring them into the bowl. Frisk laughed, as always.

sans was standing in the doorway chuckling to himself, "tori, you're _cracking_ me up over here. c'mon kid, i can see that _egg_ spression, i know you wanna join in." His grin turned shit-eating and he winked at Frisk. Frisk regained their composure and was just about to say a _grade A_ pun when Papyrus came into the kitchen moaning.

"ARGH HOW CAN THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAVE SO MANY GREAT FRIENDS WITH SUCH HORRIBLE SENSE OF HUMOR?!"

"i think you're over _egg_ xagerating, bro. just give it a shot." Papyrus looked from side to side tossing the challenge in the air.

"I CAN'T! I SCRAMBLING FOR MATERIAL OVER HERE. NYEHEHE. HEH!" The entire room burst into tears. Papyrus was standing tall enjoying the positive response to his pun.

"woah-ho-ho nice one bro! i wasn't eggspecting that" sans replied. Frisk was wheezing trying to catch their breath in between fits of poured the mixture of pancakes into a pan that was lit with her fire magic. They sizzled and filled the house with the aroma. Almost as if on cue Asgore entered the kitchen.

"Ah..! It smells amazing!" he made his way over to Toriel and gave her a hug and kissed her cheek. Her face turned bright red and she immediately returned her full attention to the stove.

"-Oh! Good morning Asgore!" she stumbled over her words slightly. He chuckled a little and took a seat at the table.

-2 hours before trick or treating-

Frisk put on their skeleton costume, it was a bodysuit, skin tight, it was black with the white skeletal system. Frisk painted two spinal disks on their neck (the surrounding area they painted black). They painted a wide smile from ear to ear, they drew an upside down heart for their nose, and colored in their eye hollows. When they were done they looked in the mirror with a satisfied smirk, they looked just like sans, right down to the lines under his eyes and shit eating grin. They put on sans' back-up hoodie, a pair of gym shorts, white socks and pink slippers. They ran out to show Toriel their work.

She was standing in the living room with Asgore by her side. She was wearing a long black dress and hat a pointy black hat and she was holding a broom. Asgore's fur was dyed green with a line of stitches drawn on his forehead, he had tried to represent one of the monsters he saw as a decoration in one of the New Hope shop windows, Frisk recognized it as Frankenstein's monster.

"Oh! Hello, sans have you seen my child?" Toriel inquired putting her pointer finger to her chin. Frisk giggled and walked over to the two, they were holding a rather large pillow case for candy.

"Silly, Tori, this is our child! Although you fooled me at first! It is a very good costume, you did an excellent job on the face," Asgore nodded approvingly at Frisks costume as they did a spin to show it off.

Toriel's phone made a beep, she pulled it out of her bag and unlocked it, the text was from sans, it read:

"hey we're meeting at your house right? we'll be over in, like 20 mins."

"Okay! :D"

Toriel looked back to Frisk, "sans and Papyrus will be here soo-" her phone beeped again, it was a text from Undyne:

"Ayo we're almost done be there soon"

"-along with Undyne and Alphys."

* * *

sans had snuck into his brother's room and stolen one of his spare outfits. He tried it on and it was way too big on him. There was no midsection to his outfit, the two pieces of armor clanked together on each other every time sans tried to move. It was a good thing he thought of a back up plan and had also stolen his "cool dude" outfit he used on his date with Frisk.

The T-shirt fit him almost perfect (he liked his shirts a little on the bigger side) considering it was a bit short on Papyrus, the khaki shorts looked more like pants on sans, but the snapback and tennis shoes fit him perfectly. He shrugged, _good enough, pap will appreciate it,_ he thought.

He picked up his phone from his bed and opened a new message for "Tori"

"hey we're meeting at your house right? we'll be over in, like, 20 mins."

He locked his phone and put it in his pocket. He felt it vibrate but didn't bother to look at it. He opened his door and found Papyrus bent over in the fridge.

"hey pap, what's up?" Papyrus was wearing a skin tight skeleton body suit underneath his normal armor.

"OH, HELLO BROTHER! I AM SIMPLY REORGANIZING MY SPAGHETTI WHILE WAITING FOR YOU TO FINISH-" he turned around and saw sans' outfit. His face instantly lit up, he drew both hands up to his cheeks and let out a gasp, there were stars in his eyes, "OH SANS! YOU LOOK LIKE THE COOLEST DUDE! WHO KNEW WE WOULD DRESS UP AS THE SAME PERSON! GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE."

"yeah well who's cooler than my bro" he winked at Papyrus and he made the "oh you" gesture in response. "ya ready?"

"OH WELL I THOUGHT YOU WOULD BE HUNGRY SO I'M HEATING UP SOME SPAGHETTI" the microwave beeped and he walked over to the cabinet, retrieving two plates. He poured a heap of noodles on each plate and handed one to sans.

"thanks, bro, you're the best." and so the two ate their spaghetti to refill their magic which in turn energizes them and headed next door.

* * *

Alphys had asked for help from Undyne when she got tangled in her school uniform. Her arm was caught in the tie and her head was poking out of the arm hole, she whimpered quietly as she struggled until Undyne helped her put her outfit on correctly. Her scales on her cheeks were bright red and she was stammering, "I-I- u-uhm th-thanks o-oh!" Undyne shut her up by giving her a kiss which made Alphys even more flustered.

Undyne had a men's pirate costume on that seemed to suit her perfectly. She had a long brown trench coat with a white blouse underneath that was torn to shreds, revealing her blue stomach towards the bottom of the shirt. She tied a red belt around her waist. She wore her regular eyepatch and boots, but had her hair down and wore a pirate hat that had a skull and crossbones on it. Undyne pulled out her phone and texted Toriel to let her know they would be over soon.

Undyne looked up and down Alphy's outfit, "wh-what is it? Do you not like it? Do-does it look bad?" Alphys looked down, her hands started to shake.

"Your outfit is missing something.." she summoned one of her blue spears and handed it to Alphys. Alphys cautiously took it and picked it up. It felt like it weighed almost nothing. "Anime school girls always have massive weapons right?" Undyne smiled and gestured towards the door, "Ya comin'?" Alphys nodded and followed Undyne outside of the house. They walked next door, right before they knocked they saw sans and Papyrus leave their own house and they met up on the porch.

"OH UNDYNE YOU LOOK SO COOL! YOUR HAT HAS A SKELETON ON IT! IS IT A TRIBUTE TO THE GREAT PAPYRUS?"

"Fuhuhu you bet it is Pap!" She pulled him close to her and noogied his head.

"AH UNDYNE PLEASE RELEASE ME!"

Toriel opened the door, "Oh my! Look at all of you!" Frisk poked their head out from behind Toriel.

"WOWIE IS THAT ANOTHER BROTHER OF MINE?" Papyrus asked leaning over trying to get a better look at Frisk. Frisk ran out from behind Toriel and showed off their costume, they stood next to sans and winked at the crowd and gave them a double thumbs up. sans followed their lead and did the same thing, "I CAN'T EVEN TELL WHICH IS WHICH!" Papyrus exclaimed eyes darting between the two.

"great costume, kid, looks like the three of us caught skeleton _femur_ " his grin grew and his eyes squinted, he looked to Frisk and they chuckled heartily at his joke.

"I WANT NO PART OF YOUR SKELETON 'FEVER' I WAS SIMPLY DRESSING UP AS MY BIGGEST HERO, THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"

"sure, bro," sans retorted.

When they arrived at the village, the sky was dark but the town was lit with orange twinkling lights atop the roofs and jack-o-lanterns on every doorstep. Children littered the streets running from house to house like ants following a trail. Frisk and sans would go up to the houses while the group waited on the sidewalk for them to return. At everyone house the kids would say "Trick-or-treat" and hold out their candy bins and bags, sans would ask every house owner to pull his finger in which they were rewarded with a harmless zap before they chuckled and handed him candy as well discriminating against his height and labeling him as a child. sans wasn't complaining, hey, free candy!

All of the kids stared at the monsters in awe, they marveled at how good their costumes were, most didn't understand they were real monsters and not just dressing up.

The night ended when Frisk's bag was too heavy to carry and their legs ached from walking. They were on their way home when Papyrus spotted the monster kid in an alleyway being harassed by the same teenagers that harassed Grillby's daughter and her girlfriend. Frisk picked followed Papyrus' line of sight and saw the attack. One of the teenagers was holding a pocket knife and the monster kid was just barely dodging the attacks and stumbling over their feet, they were trying desperately to not lose their balance, but it was difficult without arms to assist them.

Frisk ran over to them and confronted the leader, "Hey, Nate!" They called remembering his name scrawled on the paper he had given them earlier.

He turned around sharply, "You again?!" He looked surprised and embarrassed. "Look, kid, you don't want to be a part of this, trust me. Stay out of it, I don't want you getting hurt…" Frisk took another step closer, "seriously, knock it off, I'm warning you, Frisk took another step forward, "I don't have time for this, boys, take care of them" the three other teens closed in on Frisk, they all drew a pocket knife of their own and flicked them open. They advanced on Frisk, but Frisk dodged. They looked one of the boys and blew them a kiss, their attack lowered!

The onslaught of attacks came once again, Frisk slipped up and a slash cut across their face, they stumbled backwards and the three took this as an opportunity and kept slicing Frisk as they fell onto their back, knocking the wind out of them. HP 8, another stab, HP 6, two more attacks that Frisk couldn't dodge, HP 2, Frisk was breathing heavily and tried to flee.

*Cannot escape

"enough!" sans teleported in front of Frisk, Toriel ran over to Frisk and began to heal them with their magic. Sans' flame was burning out of his eye, the flames licked angrily at the air around his skull as he drew the power to materialize two Gaster blasters, all three of the attackers stood in amazement, or more likely fear, as the blasters charged, Nate turned around after one last attempt of a stab at the monster kid to stare in awe at the light gathering in the mouths of the weapons. The monster kid took this opportunity to run away and hide behind Undyne and Papyrus, their two biggest heros.

There was a blast of white light, Frisk could see black and blue dots plague their vision at the immense brightness. When the light faded sans' flame died out, the four bodies all fell to the ground, a white heart hovering above every body, each soul began to drift towards sans. His lights grew wide in worry, "no one get near those souls, seriously," he said before he teleported away from them out of the alleyway and across the street. All the monster ran across the street to join sans. Frisk stood in front of the four bodies, a crowd began to gather, parents would hide kids behind them to shield them from the view. The souls hovered above the bodies for a few minutes before they began to drift towards the sky. They floated to the stars until Frisk couldn't see them anymore. The police pushed their way through the crowd to confront Frisk.

Immediately they saw the bodies and called out, "Who was the one who did this?!" Frisk turned around and looked at them but said nothing, the crowd made a path for sans.

"i did, but they were trying to kill these two kids, and they almost did and so i had to protect them-" sans said as he tried to explain before the policeman interrupted him.

"Oh, we know all about these kids. There was a warrant for arrest for them in several different states. They've already killed 6 people, including two children, in armed robberies. They were anything but innocent, and it seems there were plenty of witnesses to testify against your self defense, it's a shame it had to come to this, but you won't be in any trouble, don't worry, you did good, kid." The police officer gave sans a pat on the back, some paramedics came with body bags and began zipping the bodies up. sans walked over to Frisk, they were still standing in the alleyway watching the paramedics do their work.

"you okay, kid?" sans asked, putting a head on their back. They flinched.

"Y-you're so...powerful… you killed all of them in one shot… how did you get this way?" They had a horrified expression in their eyes. How could a monster possibly kill not one, not two, not even three but FOUR humans?! Humans were immensely stronger than monsters… there was only one explanation, and the reality of it made Frisk shake.

"You….you have another soul don't you? How else could you…?" Frisk started to mumble gibberish to themselves. sans' lights drained from his eyes leaving dark, empty sockets.

"...fuck i'm boned," sans took a few steps back, "look, kid, I can explain…"

Two policemen separated sans and Frisk to ask them questions about what happened for the police reports.

When Frisk was done being interviewed they rejoined the group to find sans missing. He was nowhere to be found.

The squad all headed back to Ebott in silence. Frisk didn't think the rest of the group put it together and they hadn't said it loud enough for the others to hear them. Frisk couldn't clear their mind. Just what had sans done to get that soul? He was basically a god now, did he have bigger plans for the overworld? is this what Papyrus was warning Frisk about when sans got too tired, how his power could make him go out of control?

These thoughts swarmed Frisk's mind as they reached their home and crawled into their bed for a poor night's sleep. Toriel read Frisk a story before kissing their head goodnight and leaving the room. She wished them sweet dreams but Frisk was going to have nothing of the sort.


	11. Chapter 11

[Author's Note: Here's a little mini chapter explaining some background! Happy Holidays everyone!]

* * *

Sans was drained of all energy when he teleported out of the alleyway. His magic was fine, he was a god, afterall. What was summoning two blasters for three seconds, compared to the hundreds of thousands of times he used them on Chara. No, he was drained emotionally, he couldn't think straight. The way Frisk had looked at him… like he was some murderer…

Well who the hell are they to judge?! They killed every single monster in the underground, so many times. He clenched his fist, his bones cracked under the pressure. they didn't know the story… they don't know how he got this soul, all he had to do was explain. But he panicked in New Hope, he didn't want anyone else to know, especially not the humans, if they had found out they would fear him and wipe him out.

sans collapsed on his bed. Sleep was kind enough to embrace him. He dreamt of memories. Of long ago, shortly after Chara and Asriel died, a human child fell down. Toriel of course guided them through the ruins, and she told sans through the door to look after any human children. sans was determined to do just that.

He was at his sentry station when he saw the human walk by, they had blonde curly hair and they were wearing a pink knit sweater, a tutu and ballet shoes. sans walked out in front of them and held out their hand.

"heya! name's sans, what's yours?" they did a curtsey and took sans' hand, it gave them a little zap and they flinched then started to giggle. "heh, you like pranks, kid?" they nodded "then we're gonna get along just fine" he winked at them.

"My name's Tabitha," they said in return, sans began to guide them towards Snowdin.

"great name," his smile was genuine. "what brings you to the underground?"

"My brother insisted we go to this stupid mountain and scared me, i tripped and fell and goat mom lead me here" they began to hum cheerfully and skipped along the path.

"oh okay, so you want to get back then?" they nodded. "okay i'll guide you to the barrier" sans knew they would have to absorb a monster soul to cross, he didn't really want to think about that now, they would cross that bridge when they got there. He was thinking maybe they could absorb a lesser monster's soul, he would tell them later…

sans shoo'd any monsters away from attacking Tabitha. when the human began to look tired from the long trek, sans guided them into the hotel in Snowdin, he paid for them to have a room for the night, but the bunny at the front counter insisted that it was free to anyone who needed it and so both sans and Tabitha were able to sleep comfortable until the following day.

* * *

The next morning sans awoke early, he went to the shop next door and bought two cinnamon bunnies and took them into the human's room, when sans opened the door they rolled over, rubbed their eyes and yawned. They smiled at sans, "Good morning..!" sans held out a cinnamon bunny to her and her stomach rumbled on cue, she giggled and happy accepted the sugary breakfast she gave a muffled thanks in between bites as she devoured her treat.

sans threw the whole thing in his mouth where it would fall into his stomach cavity, he could feel the his magic replenish and he became more energized. "yeah, that hit the spot." he said patting his shirt where a human tummy would be. "ready to get a move on, kiddo?" they nodded and hung their feet over their bed, tying their ballet shoes back on.

The two exited the hotel saying thanks again for allowing the two to stay there.

They walked until they entered waterfall, they passed his second sentry station, they crossed the river, making a bridge with the flowers of course, crossed a lake on a plank of wood, and kept walking until they reached the area of waterfall where the rivers glowed aqua, there were bridges leading to every island in the area. The duo heard the clanking of armor. "oh man, that's my boss, okay you gotta hide, uh, here's a patch of grass we can hide in there. quick!" they both hurried into the tall patch of grass. the clanking got louder and faster, it sounded like she was running, sans tensed, beads of sweat began to form on the back of his skull.

She stopped right in front of the bush and threw a spear into it, the spear went straight through the right side of their chest. They gasped and the spear disappeared, sans hopped out of the bush.

"woah! almost got me there, gotta be more careful, heh" she lost all tension and started to laugh hysterically.

"sans! I thought you were a human, I could've sworn I saw someone wearing a tutu- fuhuhu! I'm so sorry, man, get back to your station" she chuckled a little to herself as she walked away, back where she came from.

sans turned his attention back to Tabitha, she was crying silently clutching her chest, "oh kid, tabi? hang in there, i can fix this…" he picked her up, her shoes were untied and fell to the floor, they gave a soft thud. They were a sad reminder of the past hidden away for Frisk to find later on.

sans carried her back to a secret room behind a waterfall. He laid her down and examined her, the lights were almost completely gone from her eyes. He wept over the child's body as their dark blue soul left their body and they ceased to be. His own yellow soul left his body, it was half the size of the human's, the two souls danced around each other until the intertwined and became one. He began his transformation, he could feel his bones bursting with magical potential, power surged through every bone he was made of, he was able to choose his form, in which he decided to look exactly the same, except when sans used his powers, his eye would flash yellow and blue, the colors of the two souls.

Sans dug a grave in that room behind the waterfall. It was a decent enough grave, but her tutu still showed through the dirt. sans stood for a while in silence before leaving the room and never speaking of this again. He had to keep it a secret, no one can know that he had obtained this much power… it wasn't on purpose, but they might not understand…

* * *

sans awoke with a jolt, he looked at his phone, 4 am. He had a splitting headache. He groaned in agony as he lay awake in bed trying to keep his mind clear until the sun rose.


	12. Chapter 12

Frisk woke up at 6, the sun wasn't even up yet. Their eyes were dry and itchy. They got up and walked to the bathroom and splashed cold water on their face. When they looked up in the mirror they saw their eyes were puffy with dark circles underneath, they looked horrible.

Frisk couldn't stop thinking about sans. Where had he gone? Did he get arrested? Was he still at his house? Frisk figured they would check his abode first. The thought of sans frightened Frisk but they couldn't give up on their friend just yet.

Frisk walked back into their room and grabbed the jacket that sans had given them. They tip toed through the living room and quietly shut the front door behind them and walked to the house next door. The cold air made Frisk shiver, or perhaps it had nothing to do with the cold.

They didn't bother to knock, they hurried into the house hoping for warmth only to be disappointed. The skelebros don't feel temperature so they don't turn on the heat, Frisk guessed. Frisk let out a small sigh and walked up the stairs straight into sans' room. He was laying on his back on his bed. _Was he asleep?_ Frisk wondered.

"hey kid." sans pulled himself up into a sitting position and slapped the seat next to him, Frisk flinched, a bead of sweat formed on his skull. "uh, here, i can move so you can sit…" sans slowly got up and walked to the opposite corner of the room and gestured to the bed. They accepted and took a seat.

"You killed those people." Frisk said coldly, the eye lights in sans' sockets shrunk to pinpricks. More beads of sweat formed.

"yeah. but they were bad people. they wanted to hurt our friends, they were criminals." sans was only mildly interested in covering his ass with excuses, he didn't want to try too hard because he knew he deserved it. He had no idea they were criminals when he attacked them. They could have been just mislead kids, but sans didn't care about any of that. He cared about protecting his own. He was selfish.

Frisk shook their head, "I had no idea that you would kill anyone in this timeline, and then you killed four people in one day…." they refused to look at sans, but sans knew they were crying, small drops of tears dripped on their lap. They clenched their fists, "and not only that...but to find out you've killed humans before, you had to, to have enough power... " a small sob escaped Frisk, "so how many have you killed?" Frisk looked up, their eyes bore straight through sans, their face was wet but their expression held no sorrow.

"you really wanna know?" sans wiped his sweat with the back of his sleeve. Frisk slowly nodded and sans let out a sigh, "seven."

Frisk flinched.

"i only killed three in the underground, and then those four...but i only killed the bad ones. after i absorbed tabi's soul, capturing theirs was easy. i would watch them from behind trees and see them kill lesser monsters. that's when i knew. so i took their soul and brought them to asgore."

"Tabi?" Frisk looked up with a puzzled look.

"i tried saving three humans but they didn't have the determination to 'save' like you do." sans sat down on the floor in his corner, he crossed his legs, "the second human to fall down, her name was tabi, i tried to guide her through the underground...we made it to waterfall before undyne's spear killed her, undyne doesn't know she did it, but i carried her body away when undyne left, and i absorbed her soul... nobody else knows, so can you uh, not tell 'em?" Frisk sat still on the bed, their head made a small nod.

They tightly closed their eyes and let out a long sigh to steady their breathing, "Okay."

sans looked up at Frisk, he gave them a confused look as if to ask to explain further, Frisk said nothing. "...okay? okay what?"

"I can't say anything. I've killed the entire underground more times than I can count…" on the inside sans agreed, they had done that, they killed everyone…

He swallowed hard, "c'mon kid that's not fair, that wasn't you that was char-"

"Doesn't matter, I wasn't strong enough to fight them, and I always killed a monster to gain my first exp to awaken them. That's when I got the most determination… and so you.. you only killed seven.. compared to my.. what? Millions?"

"somethin' like that."

"So...it's okay…" sans nodded at this. He knew Frisk was lying, he knew it wasn't okay, he could see it in their eyes… he could see it every time sans moved and Frisk flinched. He just wished that Frisk would yell at him, to punish him, he didn't deserve this kindness from them.

The two sat in silence for a long time. sans was the first to speak, "alright well i gotta get some stuff done, gotta look for a new job before pap gets more mad. you gonna be okay kid?" Frisk nodded, they stood up too, sans walked over to the door and held it open for Frisk, they hesitantly walked past, sans stood as still as possible until they passed so as not to startle them. He had to regain his trust.

Frisk gave a small nod in goodbyes when the two walked outside, sans waved, Frisk flinched. sans cursed internally to himself. He watched them walk over to their house to ensure they were safe before turning back into his house and walking back into his room where he walked into the corner and fell backwards into a shortcut.

He was back in his lab in Snowdin. The ceiling was still caved in and all of his research was scattered. "really wasn't in the mood to clean today…" he started using his magic to clean up the rubble and fix the ceiling while also gathering all of his papers. He fixed the parts of the machine that had broken off like the disconnected steam tubes and such.

His lab was back to normal, his machine stood in front of him, taunting him. "why'd you convince me to help you make this…" he shook his head. He sifted through his papers and typed in the list of symbols he had written down before. The machine buzzed and hummed. A white light seeped through the cracks of the door just as it did the time before. The screen flickered static until it was black with gaster's face. His smile was haunting and his eyes were devious. _problems with the pixels_ , sans thought as he tapped the screen, with every tap his face glitched to a horrified expression.

The machine started to squeal and sans looked through his papers some more, "...oh! okay…" he pushed in some more keys furiously, the machine calmed down and it beeped once. The latch on the door unlocked and the door swung open, steam rushed out of the machine and filled the smile room.

A tall dark figure stepped out. He was thin and wearing a black suit. His skull was cracked above his right eye and below his left. He was smiling, "Ah-ha! My boy! You've done it!"

"...gaster?" sans could feel his own smile creeping on his face, spreading from ear to ear, "gaster!"

He ran over to him and hugged his legs, he was even taller than Papyrus. Gaster picked him up and hugged him tightly before placing him back on the ground.

"i-i can't believe that worked, well now i have all the equations and theories here, we can save all the others that went in after you, i can bring them all back!" sans was getting excited, he was pacing the lab and looked up expectantly at Gaster whose smile faded.

"Well… all of my assistants weren't boss monsters… they were lesser monsters and so they won't be able to survive the dose of determination they need to gather all of their fragments in one place and time, not only that but when that kills them, their soul won't last long enough for us to be able to do anything to help them. sans… I'm not sure we can ever save the others." He looked sadly over to sans.

sans frowned. "...are you sure?"

"I have seen all timelines, and none of them successfully bring them back."

"oh… but hey you're here! wow i've missed you, and pap, i can't wait to let pap know you're here and alphys and asgore and everyone!" Gaster chuckled, he form seemed to glitch and his body separated and inverted it's colors for a split second before returning him to normal, Gaster clutched his chest.

"you okay gast? that… didn't look promising.."

"Yes well it's exhausting to muster enough strength and determination to keep your form from being scattered all over space and time," he snapped at sans, sans took a step back.

"..sorry."

He straightened himself and lay a hand on his head, "No, I should be sorry, it just.. that hurt. If I start to do that too often, you're going to need to inject me with more determination, okay?" sans looked over to the briefcase that was laying on the countertop, he wasn't so sure but nodded anyways.

"Oh, I'm just so glad to see you," He bent down and hugged sans once more, he pulled back and looked him over, "Oh! You've grown much stronger since last I saw you, yes more LV…" He stood back up, "sans, do you know how you were made?"

"never thought much of it. pap and i just showed up one day in snowdin. already had a house and everything."

"You never wondered?"

"i had no one to ask"

"You should have asked me." sans stared at Gaster, Gaster let out a small chuckle, "You never saw the resemblance? Between us? You me and Papyrus?" sans' eyelights narrowed at Gaster's words, "sans do you recall when I was two people?"

"yeah. that's the whole reason we built this machine. because you guys fucked up with your determination experiments, you injected yourselves and became an amalgamate.."

"Yes. Well if you had the chance to save your brother from death wouldn't you take it too?" sans flinched. Gaster took a deep breath and continued, "Anyways… Before when we were Wing Dings and Aster we were working on a project for King Dreemurr. He had asked us to create something to capture humans who fall down. And so we used the soul extraction machine we had built to extract a piece of each of our soul to build you and Papyrus, we also cut out a piece of our hands and replicated the chemical make-up of our beings to create the vessel for your souls to live. You and Papyrus are a part of me, W.D. Gaster. I created the both of you."

"...so pap and i only had half souls?"

"In a sense yes, but you didn't have a soul that was only half colored as Gaster and Wing Dings did, your soul was simply half the size. You two were created to be able to survive on these smaller souls, we on the other hand, had not thought it through. Along our many studies we had also been researching determination, we created it in a liquid form in hopes to keep our souls from shattering, they didn't have enough power to fuel the magic we needed to live.

"It worked at first, injecting ourselves. It would fill the half of our soul that was missing with determination which seemed to be a good enough energy source for our magic. Until Aster got greedy… he thought if he used more determination that he would be more powerful, his body began to melt, his soul was draining from color, turning grey as dust, threatening to break. W.D. ran over to help him and he injected W.D. with determination as well. They both melted into one another, their souls latched together and they bonded. Something happened unheard of through all history. A monster absorbed another monster's soul, well perhaps not absorbed, but they became one creating me.

"Aster was never the best of the two, they always had malicious experiments they were conducting simply because he was curious. Sometimes I can feel the difference of W.D. and Aster's thoughts, feelings, and actions. I managed to live in harmony for a short time as W.D. Gaster, the two of us together could accomplish so much! We created the core, the soul extraction machines, liquid determination, we created all of those containers to keep the human souls when they were captured, we were in our prime.

"We tried our best to be in you and Papyrus' lives but you were basically clones of some sort so you were fully capable of living on your own and making your own decisions, there was no reason to parent you. And so we signed you up for the royal guard, and you, sans, also helped me with my research. Until Aster decided to try to make us even more powerful. He took over Gaster and injected himself with more determination. That's when we couldn't handle it, that's when we started to melt and actually began to die. That's when we made the time machine and I got scattered."

sans stood there, in the middle of the room, in silence. He was trying to process this, "i...i-i don't know what to say, i'm shocked…"

"Hi shocked, I'm dad." Gaster replied with the biggest grin on his face. sans looked up at him, returning the same identical grin and giving him an approving bellow of laughter. _maybe it's not such a shock after all,_ sans thought.


	13. Chapter 13

[Author's note: I've been updating at least once a week if you guys are curious to the schedule (I think I can get the next chapter up today too) Also! if you want you can make suggestions for the story? *wink nudge nudge* I have a set plot but i want to write cute fluffy filler stuff]

Sans walked up to Gaster and immediately started poking him everywhere to make sure he was really there. When sans was satisfied with how solid he was he summoned Gaster's soul out of his body, Gaster's glitched and sans swore while he was glitching that Gaster was horrified or in pain or… something. His soul was half light blue and half white, it had dark spots inside of it, it looked comparable to how a picture looks when several pixels are dead. Sans looked up at Gaster and he was smiling at him.

"I wouldn't worry about those," he said, "You brought most of me back, what's a few small spots?"

"do you think anyone remembers you?" sans asked, "i mean, they didn't remember before, only i did… but maybe since you're here now?" he looked up at Gaster searching him for an answer. Gaster put a long finger bone up to his chin and hummed slightly in thought.

He shrugged, "Only one way to find out," sans nodded and pulled out his phone, he texted everyone and told them to meet at his house in Ebott. He didn't make the big reveal.

"i don't s'pose you can travel through shortcuts?"

"It's probably not the best ide-" Gaster started to glitch again, but this time it lingered, and sans could have sworn through all the static that he heard words. He listened, closer, "saAnnN" yes, definitely words.

Gaster's episode concluded and he gasped and clutched his chest, "sans, could you make sure to bring the determination for me please?" sans nodded and grabbed the briefcase from the counter.

"ya ready to meet everyone again?"

"Oh I have longed for this for a long time…" sans lead the way out of the back door, the cold winds of snowdin ruffled their clothing and went straight through their bones. It didn't bother the skeletons.

Gaster took a deep breath before taking his first step into the snow of the town, "Ah… Snowdin." He chuckled once to himself when looking back at the house, "and this house, I remember when Aster and I built it, ha ha-he elLLPP p p-ahha" sans looked over Gaster with concern but he didn't seem to notice, sans kept a mental note of these words and lead them around to the front of the house and up towards the river person.

They stood on top of their cat boat and waited for sans and Gaster. "Hello," he said simply.

"Gaster." they replied.

They did not sing.

They arrived in Hotland. "Where is everyone?" Gaster was looking around until they went up into the elevator, the doors closed.

"more like _what's up_ with everyone" *sans shrugs his shoulders and the camera zooms on him, he winks, there's a buh dum tiss in the soundtrack* The elevator dinged, they were at the top floor, and almost at the core. Gaster stared at sans, he didn't get it, "they're on the surface." he said begrudgingly.

"Ah! They've made it! How lucky for me to have been brought back during such an important timeline!" Gaster had stars in his eyes and was excreting happiness. sans couldn't help but feel happy too, why was he so miserable when he was living in such a happy time? All of his friends were alive and well, monsters and humans rule the surface together, Gaster is back. Perhaps he should start feeling less sorry for himself, he thought.

They walked straight through the mettahotel and before too long they stood before the core, "Ah, the core, my greatest invention yet!" he marveled at his own work before sans shook his head and started forward without him, "H-hey! Wait!" He only had to jog two strides before catching up to the small skeleton.

"so you made us to capture humans, huh?" Gaster nodded, "heh. we might be your biggest failures yet. neither me nor pap were any good at catchin' humans. we tried to help most of 'em," he shrugged and winked at Gaster, he began to laugh.

"Perhaps, but it was for the better, you made a valuable friend who could free the monsters!" sans tossed this in his head, he supposed that was a fair way at looking at it. Maybe he wasn't as big of a failure as he thought? He certainly wasn't in Gaster's eyes.

They entered the elevator to take them to Asgore's castle. The doors closed and they took the long trip up. sans heard static leaking from Gaster, he looked over and was startled to see Gaster's inverted form frowning cruelly at him, Gaster glitched in front of sans and slammed him against the elevator wall, his eyes were empty but pleading-a sign only a skeleton could recognize- He opened his mouth and symbols of Wing Dings flooded out as the words surfaced through the static.

"saAAN heeELP usSs" were the words. The Wing Dings sans read: sa ans ple easee it is tooOO mucHH it huRTTTSss s uSSSs

Gaster collapsed and his form returned to normal, sans began to sweat and opened up his suitcase, "gaster? how much of this do you need…?" He took one of the syringes and hovered it above his body awaiting a response.

Gaster's head shot up, his eyes red, "GIVE THAT TO ME!" He screamed as he snatched it out of sans' hand and shoved the needle through his skull, sans looked away, he felt queasy. Gaster let out an inhumane yowl, when it died down sans forced himself to look, Gaster was helping himself up from the floor, he looked back to normal. He dusted off his suit and looked at sans who was staring at him with empty sockets and worried brow bones.

"My soul pixels were scattering. I'm sorry I got so violent, I was desperate." sans only began to sweat more, he looked side to side before returning his eyelights and looking at Gaster.

The elevator dinged.

"heh. it's okay, that info _rings a bell_. but nah that makes sense…" sans scratched the back of his head as the two exited the elevator. Gaster was dying in laughter and when his fit ended he slapped his knee and wiped a tear from his eye.

It was an hour of walking from Asgore's castle to Ebott, but the journey was filled with puns and jokes of all sort ranging from dad jokes to knock knock jokes. When they walked into Ebott Gaster nodded approvingly at the town, "It seems as if everyone has adjusted nicely, although they are all crowded in one area."

"yeah there have been incidents of humans attacking monster for their souls, so, y'know, they're scared." sans replied.

Gaster perked up at this information, "Is that so?" His smile grew wider but when he caught himself he immediately changed back to a neutral expression, "How terrible.." sans took notice, but said nothing.

The two stopped in front of the new skelebros house, "whelp, this is it. everyone should already be inside." he lead the way up the two stone steps and into the door, the friend group was all gathered in the living room watching cartoons on TV.

sans cleared his throat to get their attention, "everyone, there's someone i'd like you to meet!" all the heads in the room turned towards the two.

Alphys was the first to talk, "..G-gaster? is i-is that really you? Oh! Where have yo-you be-en all this tim-" Her smile faded, it seemed all her memories were rushing back to her, "How di-did you ever manage to, uh, get ba-ack?" Alphys was stumbling over her words more than usual, she was flustered and confused.

"ER...GASTER? W.D. GASTER? THOSE WEIRDOS WHO ABSORBED EACH OTHER'S SOULs?" Papyrus asked hesitantly.

"yeah well see, what happened was… [insert the whole story i already told you readers about aster and wing dings and the skelebros daddy etc..]" the room was silent. Everyone was exchanging glances between Papyrus, sans and Gaster.

"D-DAD?" Papyrus took a step forward, he was apprehensive. Gaster held out his long arms and Papyrus ran into them to be embraced in a hug. "WAIT, SO WHO'S GOING TO READ ME BEDTIME STORIES?" he took a step back and looked between the two.

"we'll take turns pap." sans said. Papyrus seemed satisfied enough with that answer.

All of the shock faded and soon enough it felt like Gaster had just become a part of the gang. He fit in well enough... besides scaring everyone with his glitch episodes.

Gaster walked over to Alphys and pulled her aside, "So, did you watch Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2?" Alphy's face immediately lit up she had stars in her eyes.

"O-oh! I didn't care too much for it, I-I don't see how people can think it's, um, better than Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 1…" She began to sweat and was nervously fiddling with her claws.

Gaster smiled down at her, "I completely agree! I think it totally ruins Mew Mew's entire character arc!"

She perked up, "My Mew Mew 2 review: Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2 is neither kissy nor cutie. It's trash. 0 stars." Gaster burst out in laughter, tears were falling from his sockets.

"I'm so glad all of my anime was left in good hands," Gaster winked at Alphys, she blushed and started fiddling with her claws again. Papyrus was standing not too far away and was eavesdropping.

"OH MY GOD? DAD YOU'RE A HUGE NERD!"

Gaster had made plans to have tea with Muffet, Toriel, Asgore and Undyne; puzzles with Papyrus; and watch new anime (since they were on the surface now) with Alphys. Gaster seemed to mostly ignore Frisk, but they just assumed he was more interested in reuniting with his friends and family… clones?

The house cleared out, Gaster ended up leaving with Alphys and Undyne to go watch some other magical girl anime, Toriel and Asgore informed Frisk that they were going with the mayor of New Hope to get a car so they could start practicing. Frisk decided to stay with the skeleton brothers, but Papyrus said he needed to start looking for a job now that there was no need for the royal guard.

The house was left with only two occupants, sans and Frisk. "So you really did it, huh?" Frisk spoke up, walking over to sans in the middle of the room.

"heh. yeah, somehow i actually did it." he slowly shook his head, "but i dunno, he's not all there. literally. he's missing parts of his soul… On our way here he started to glitch real bad. he says the only way to fix him is to give him more determination," sans patted the briefcase he had been holding. "well...i did that but… it feels wrong. y'know? sometimes i can see a red glow in his sockets, and he'd give me the same look that you used to give me after you killed everyone," Frisk stiffened, "...i think too much determination is bound to be bad for him. i just gotta keep a socket out for him."

Frisk nodded once.

[A/N: Okay this was a short chapter but i needed some fluff before the next chapter-also i will get to flowey/asriel, it's just sorta tied in with chara's story that i've been hinting at throughout the work, i just haven't gotten to it yet, but i will i promise! Maybe even sooner than you think *insert seductive winky face here*]


	14. Chapter 14

sans ended up falling asleep watching TV on the couch, so Frisk decided they would take their leave. They walked next door into their own house and sat on their bed. They could feel their head begin to ache. They could feel Chara's presence in the back of their mind fighting to take control. They had been trying to drown out Chara's thoughts all night, ever since Gaster appeared.

But this time was different, this time Chara was winning, Frisk couldn't fight the urge any longer, their determination was no match. Frisk closed their eyes tightly, they could see red dots on the back of their eyelids.

Chara opened their eyes.

Frisk was locked away in their subconscious thoughts, forced to be able to only watch Chara's actions. They could feel what Chara was feeling, and to Frisk's surprise, it wasn't bloodthirsty intentions towards monsters. It was...love?

Chara stood up from their bed, they walked into Toriel's room and searched through her dresser. They opened one drawer and it was full of green and yellow striped shirts, some had more stripes than others. Chara grabbed one of Asriel's old shirts and put it up to their face, tears leaked from their eyes, "Finally…" They took off Frisk's sweater and put Asriel's on, it was damp from the tears. Chara sniffled once, gathering their composure, "I finally have control…" They wiped their eyes with the sleeve and walked to the kitchen, they grabbed a knife and put it in their pocket. They walked out the front door and shut it behind them. They grabbed the knife and twirled it around their hand before putting the tip up to their chin, "Hm… let's see, Floraville or Flowey Town?" They looked up at the mountain and nodded once to themself, "Flowey Town is closer," they giggled and started to skip up the path to Mt. Ebott.

When they got to the barrier they saw that the area was completely abandoned, there were "Sorry we're CLOSED" signs on both Grillbz and Muffet's Bakery. Chara could hear some shouting behind the buildings, they hummed and twirled their knife as the walked around the corner.

They saw two adult men trapping Grillby against the back wall of his own building, one of the guys spoke up, he was bald but looked in his thirties, he had tattoo sleeves and was ripped. "You think we can take him, bro?"

The other had black hair that was slicked back, he was less muscular but still threatening, "Don't you know that one human soul is stronger than a thousand of theirs? 'Course we can take him." He balled up his fist, he was wearing brass knuckles and swung at Grillby's face. Grillby dodged and shot flames out of his arms in between the two. The flames hit their sides and they screamed in pain, they patted at their clothes that were still flaming. Grillby let out a small huff of amusement that sounded like a candle being blown out.

Chara took this as an opportunity to step in, "Hmm? What's this? You can't even take on a monster? Well, how about a little kid?" Their smile was malicious and grew from ear to ear, red was seeping out of their irises.

The two exchanged glances between each other, the bald one spoke whispered in the other's ear, "...Dude what's up with this kid?"

"Looks like someone never learned their manners, come at me, kid! I'll even let you take the first hit."

"You'll regret that," Chara said as they pulled their knife out of their pocket and dashed straight for him, their knife sliced straight through his stomach, blood pooled around his feet. His bald friend stared in horror and looked wide-eyed at Chara. They shrugged and tsk'd, "Don't give me that look, it was self defense, you were planning to kill him after all."

The bald biker flicked out his own switchblade and advanced towards Chara, he slashed at their midsection, they ducked and stepped behind him, he stumbled and Chara grabbed his hair yanking his head up exposing his neck. They ran their knife straight across leaving a birlliant red trail that dripped and spurted on his clothes, Chara let go of his hair and he dropped to the ground.

"Don't mention it Grillby," Chara said, they stared straight at him, threateningly, "Seriously, don't mention it to anyone," they winked, "now help me with these bodies?" Grillby snapped his fingers summoning flames to lick away at the bodies littering the floor. Within seconds they had turned to ash, their souls hovered above the piles of dust for several moments before twirling and floating to the heavens. "You can open up shop now that they're dealt with" They smiled one last time at Grillby and walked through the barrier. Frisk was speechless in their prison, they tried to stay determined, they tried to fight against Chara's own determination, they tried to fight for control, but failed.

Chara skipped through the stone hallway beyond the barrier (where it used to be) and into the throne room. The flowers were mostly wilted and dying, but in the center stood one flower, its petals were bright and lifted, it turned around to greet the human, but his eyes grew wide at the sight of Chara's red eyes and Asriel's striped shirt, "Ch...Chara?"

"Hey, Asriel." His smile grew wide and tears fell from his eyes.

"You never left?"

"How could I while leaving you down here all alone?" Chara kneeled down in front of the flower, he was wiping at his eyes with his leaves.

"You changed…" he said, "you wanted to kill everyone… before, even i was scared of you... what happened?"

"Well BEFORE we died I only wanted to kill all of humanity. They started a war that was killing everyone, and it was a selfish war. After we died I wanted to kill everyone so they wouldn't have to suffer, I was going to fulfill the prophecy, to be the angel of death, freeing all monsters of the humans' curse. Now… now I'm feeling very confused… and I wanted to see my best friend again."

"You...You want me?" Chara nodded enthusiastically. "On the surface?" They looked beyond Chara towards the hallway out of the underground, they nodded once more. "Y'kknow… I've always wanted to go to the surface, but I was afraid of Frisk finding me.. I think.. I think I'd be satisfied up there, I don't know what's going to happen, it's a whole new world of opportunities and no more saves, I don't know what's going to happen next, I think that might be enough for me…?" His eyes were twinkling. Chara scooped him up and held them in their hands.

"It's settled then, you're coming with us. I don't know how much longer I can keep control, but I'll make sure nothing happens to you." It was then that Frisk stopped fighting, they could no longer stay determined, and so they lost motivation, but not hope. Chara was no longer able to feed off Frisk's determination and Chara could feel their power seep away, "Speak of the devil, we'll talk soon Asriel." Frisk fought through their consciousness and managed to break it to gain control of their body once more. they were holding Flowey and he was looking up at them, worried.

"I can still come to the surface...right?" Frisk couldn't help but allow it, they would keep an eye on him, and would be sure to tell everyone else to be wary of him as well. They nodded towards Flowey and they smiled and wiggled a little in some form of dance. When they exited the underground they saw that it was getting dark, Grillby's and Muffet's were open again, Frisk pulled the knife out of their pocket, it was still stained with blood. They threw the knife into the woods to rid themselves of the evidence but they couldn't get rid of the guilt.

They were too weak to fight off Chara. Because of this weakness they had murdered two people. Frisk wondered what Grillby thought. They figured it was a conversation for another day. Too much excitement was going on today and frankly Frisk was just dead tired. They couldn't shake the image of horror on the one guy's face. He was terrified, his eyes were filled with shock and grief.

And all that blood, there was so much. Just pooling around them. Chara seemed to dance in it, it made Frisk feel sick. The more they thought about it the more their stomach churned. Until Frisk could feel their mouth drip with saliva, they ran over to some bushes and puked, cold sweat formed on their forehead and neck. They shook awaiting another wave of nausea, but when it ceased to show, Frisk stood up and weakly continued their walk back to Ebott.

"Rough day?" Flowey asked, Frisk nodded meekly.

When Frisk go to their house they went into Asgore's room and took one of his spare pots he had in his closet. Frisk walked outside and filled it up with dirt and put Flowey inside it, he threaded all of his roots through the soil, "I don't like it. I can't pop up anywhere.."

"Too bad. I can't trust you yet." Frisk put Flowey on their dresser and collapsed on their bed.

"I'm surprised you didn't reset, was it because of what I said to you after you freed them? Did you take my advice? Are you going to let everyone live happily?"

"That's the plan." Frisk closed their eyes and prayed for sleep to relieve them.

They had nightmares that night. Every murder they ever committed played through on repeat all night, all of those monsters, all of their friends, Papyrus, sans, Toriel…. Those two humans, Frisk didn't even know their names! Dust. Dust. Dust. They all turned to dust. Frisk tossed and turned. They were swimming in a pool of blood, no, an ocean!

the blood was almost black in the mass amount it had gathered. Frisk was drowning in it, it was sticky and thick and ran down their throat and nose. It tasted like regret.

Desperately Frisk searched the ocean for land, anything to get them out of this sickening fluid. When they resurfaced after a wave dragged them under they saw an island of rock. They quickly swam to it, never losing determination.

When they reached the island they were surprised to be met with not solid ground, but ash and dust. On top of the island was a chair made out of the dead bodies of everyone they murdered. Chara was sitting on top of the throne, smiling at Frisk. Frisk was suddenly sucked back under the sea, they could feel hands pulling them deeper into the scarlet waters until they could only see blackness.


	15. Chapter 15

[A/N: I had an idea where Frisk was going to be like 17 but the more the story goes on the more i think against it, so they're probably like 14, but i feel wrong shipping a child and a who-knows-how-old skeleton so i don't know (*/*). Also thanks so much for all of my readers you're all so amazing, without your encouraging reviews and follows/favorites I would've stopped this fanfic at like chapter 4]

Frisk awoke when their stomach churned and flipped. They could feel their nausea turn into bile which was slowly making its way up Frisk's throat. Their eyes fluttered open and they slapped a hand across their mouth as they rushed for the bathroom. They clutched the sides of the toilet and shook, awaiting the vomit to be purged from Frisk's body.

Shivers were sent through Frisk's spine as they shook and heaved until they were puking. Frisk closed their eyes tight during the episode. When they were done puking they opened their eyes and were surprised to see some blood mixed in with their digested food.

They flushed the toilet but sat on the floor of the bathroom against the wall awaiting another wave of nausea. All of a sudden Frisk heard unbearable screaming from inside of their head. It was pained and desperate and constant. Frisk slapped their hands over their ears and pressed tightly in hopes of somehow blocking the screams, but to no avail.

Frisk was then hit with a splitting headache, they forced their eyes closed with their hands still over their ears. The yell became more high-pitched and horrific, like a child screaming while being tortured.

Frisk forced themself to the toilet again when they sensed mixed feelings of extreme pain and nausea. Frisk's body twitched and shivered until they retched once more, Frisk did not close their eyes this time, and they saw that their puke was entirely consisted of blood. They must have emptied their stomach of any leftover food the wave before this. Frisk could feel the screaming in their head slowly start to fade until they could no longer hear it. When the screaming was gone Frisk's puking stopped. They were relieved and exhausted, their stomach ached and they felt light headed.

But most importantly, Frisk felt a weight lift from them. Like an unwelcome soul who forcefully attached itself to Frisk ever since entering the underground had left, or been taken. For the first time in forever, Frisk's thoughts were entirely their own, they could no longer feel the presence of Chara. Their determination...was entirely their own.

Frisk was weak but they felt completely better; aside from feeling light-headed from blood loss. They cleaned themself off, scrubbed the toilet, and brushed their teeth before running into Toriel in the hallway.

"Are you alright, my child?" Her eyes were filled with concern but her face was soft and gentle, "you are so pale" she frowned in worry. Her cheeks turned bright red when she noticed the outfit Frisk was in.

"Nightmares.." Frisk said simply and shrugged their shoulders. Toriel's eyes narrowed but she kneeled down and gave Frisk a hug. Frisk enjoyed being embraced, her fur felt like a warm blanket and she always smelled of pie.

"You may always come talk to me if you need it, Frisk." Frisk nodded and buried their face into her fur and squeezed her one last time before breaking away, they smiled up at her to assure her there was nothing to worry about. "Now come, I have made cinnamon bunnies for breakfast!" Toriel grabbed Frisk's hand and lead them into the kitchen.

They were immediately greeted with the sweet aroma of cinnamon and frosting. There was a huge platter sitting on the table of rather large cinnamon rolls that were in the shape of a bunny, with two large ears sticking up at the top.

Gaster was pouring tea for Asgore over by the stove, Frisk tugged on Toriel's robes and pointed at the cinnamon bunnies in question.

"Oh! Yes this is a lot but Papyrus, sans, and Undyne are coming over for breakfast too!" she let out a light laugh. Frisk nodded and looked down to realize they were still wearing Asriel's shirt and immediately grew embarrassed. Frisk turned to leave the kitchen and change when Asgore noticed them.

"Frisk? Where did you get that sweater?" He had a huge smile on his face and walked towards Frisk, "You look great in it! Would you like all of Asriel's old clothes?" Frisk could feel the heat rising to their cheeks and they looked down and shuffled their feet awkwardly. "Tori, were you the one to dress Frisk today?"

Tori shook her head, "They must have found it on their own." But she smiled at Frisk to let them know that it was alright. Frisk's face lost its blush and was replaced with a small grin.

There was a knock on the door before being immediately opened. When Frisk turned around they saw Undyne walking in the door immediately followed by Papyrus who was carrying sans in his arms. sans appeared to be asleep.

"Hey guys! Thanks for inviting us but Alphys just wasn't feeling up to visiting today. Awww shit that smells awesome!" Undyne was wearing her black tank top, jeans and boots. She licked her lips and started towards the cinnamon bunnies.

Toriel's head snapped toward Undyne, her eyes were on fire, "Undyne! Language! We have a child here." She glared at Undyne whose cheeks were already stuffed with half a cinnamon bunny. When Undyne met Toriel's eyes she swallowed hard and smiled nervously.

"Oops, sorry Tori…" Undyne was sweating nervously under her hard gaze.

"Do not apologize to me, apologize to the child." Toriel crossed her arms.

"Hey, sorry Frisk." Undyne gave Frisk a playful shove. Frisk shrugged and hugged Undyne. Toriel seemed satisfied with that and began reaching for plates in the cupboard. Papyrus put sans down on his feet and grabbed a plate. sans was still asleep. Undyne looked down at him and frowned, "SANS! HOW ARE YOU STILL ASLEEP?" She screamed into his ear and he opened his eyes slowly and let out a yawn while stretching out his arms.

"huh? did you say something?" Undyne rolled her eyes. Toriel handed a plate to sans and they all gathered around the table reaching for the cinnamon bunnies in the middle. They all walked into the living room which had several wooden chairs set up for the extra people. They all took a seat and ate their cinnamon bunnies.

Gaster walked in with a tray of tea cups and handed one to everyone. Undyne smelled it and took a sip, "Golden flower tea? Fuhuhu! Looks like you have good taste, Gaster!" He smiled in response and took his seat.

"hey gaster, where were you yesterday? i thought you were a _void_ ing me again" the room was silent for a moment before Gaster chuckled heartily [[get it because he was lost in the void]] along with Frisk's muffled laughs and Toriel's giggles. Papyrus and Undyne exchanged glances and groaned in unison. "aw, don't worry about it gas, i still love you down to the _core_ " Gaster was now clutching his sides, Frisk was straight up crying, and Toriel's was laughing so hard that no noise was escaping.

"ARGH! DAD! DON'T ENCOURAGE HIM!" Papyrus exclaimed while crossing his arms.

When everyone had finally calmed down sans spoke again, "nah but seriously, we missed you, the accident was de _gaste_ rous for us all" Frisk fell out of their chair and was laughing hysterically, Toriel was gasping for air between her silent laughing fits, Gaster could feel tears drip out of his sockets.

Papyrus let out an inhuman howl of annoyance, but him and Undyne could not fight the smile that was creeping on their faces.

When everyone was finished eating, they all piled up their plates in the sink. Papyrus insisted that he did the dishes to which Toriel was grateful.

Undyne was hovering over the few left over cinnamon bunnies before looking over to Toriel, "Hey Tori can I take these back with me? Alphys loves these things and the extra one can go to her weird friend that's visiting today, Mettaton." Undyne rolled her eyes at his name. Papyrus immediately ran over to Undyne.

"YOU KNOW METTATON? WOWIE CAN YOU INTRODUCE US?!" When Undyne looked at his pleading smile she couldn't help but say yes. And so the two said goodbye and thanks after Papyrus was finished with the dishes and walked out of the house.

Gaster looked down at his watch and back up to Asgore, "Oh dear, if we don't hurry we're going to be late to Muffet's for tea!" Gaster quickly gathered some of his dried tea leaves he grew himself from the pantry and kissed Toriel on the cheek before leaving themselves.

"I'm afraid I must go too, my child. Sarah was kind enough to take me driving today so that we may visit your village sooner! Oh! You haven't seen the car yet have you? Come!" She grabbed Frisk's hand and lead them outside where there sat a Jeep Wrangler without the top and doors in the front yard. "There were limited options for Asgore's size and especially his horns" Frisk giggled and looked up to see Sarah walking down the path and waving at the two. Toriel and Frisk waved back. "Here she comes now, I will be home in a few hours, my child!" She kissed Frisk on the head and slid into the driver's seat. Sarah sat in the passenger's. Frisk waved goodbye as they drove off going about 2 mph.

Frisk walked back into the house to see sans missing and Frisk's bedroom door open. When they walked in their room they saw sans poking Flowey. "who's this?" sans asked giving him another poke.

"Stop!" Flowey whined, "I'm Asriel" sans turned around to frisk, one browbone raised in question.

"asriel? tori and asgore's kid?" Frisk nodded.

"When Chara and him died, his dust coated a yellow flower, which Alphys injected with determination." sans nodded and huffed as if it were obvious and he had missed it.

"does he have a soul?" Frisk shook their head, sans looked back at Asriel/Flowey "do tori and asgore know?" he looked back at Frisk who shook their head again. "you should probably tell 'em"

"Yeah but I don't know if I can trust him yet" Frisk walked over to sans and looked at Flowey who was quietly listening.

"whaddya mean?"

"Before I fell down he had the most determination, so he was able to save and reset just like I was." sans sockets widened and his lights shrunk as if a missing puzzle piece had been found.

"so it wasn't just you? it was him too? aw gee, i blamed it all on you kid, sorry" Frisk shrugged.

"He wanted to destroy the world. He absorbed all 6 of the human souls along with all of the monster souls in the underground. But instead he destroyed the barrier and returned the souls. Then no one remembered it." sans scrunched his face in thought for a moment.

"probably shouldn't tell the first part to your parents." Frisk nodded in agreement. "but you should tell them he's here. i'll keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't do anything." Frisk nodded once more in thanks. They wanted to talk to sans about Chara but they didn't want Flowey to know that they were gone. Flowey had once said they wouldn't mind living on the surface if they could live there with Chara. What would happen when they found out? Would they not care anymore? Would they try to kill their friends again? Frisk couldn't take that chance so they picked up Flowey's pot and started to leave the room.

Frisk's foot kicked a blanket that had been thrown on the floor earlier in a careless attempt to make it to the bathroom in time. Their other foot was standing on the other end of the blanket and made them trip. Their face hit the carpet but when they looked up they saw that Flowey was still upright and untouched in his pot. They let out a small sigh of relief.

sans started cracking up before calming himself enough to talk, "nice _faceplant_ , kid" sans went back to snickering and Frisk shoved their face back into the floor to quiet their laughs.

Flowey shook his head, "hah..ha okay that was pretty good."

"maybe this plant's not so bad afterall." sans walked over to Frisk and took Flowey in one arm while offering his other in assistance to Frisk. Frisk accepted and helped themself up off the ground, a bruise was starting to form on their nose. "heh.. gotta be more careful, kid." Frisk blushed a little and took Flowey out into the kitchen.

"H-hey! Why are you putting me here?" Flowey looked annoyed.

"Thought you could get some sun." Frisk shrugged and opened the blinds so the sun would shine down on the small plant. He opened up his leaves and looked out the window. He seemed to be enjoying himself.

Frisk walked back into their room and closed the door. "what? you want some alone time?"

"I think Chara left." Frisk blurted out. sans took a seat on their bed and Frisk followed.

"whaddya mean?"

"I don't feel their...presence… influence? anymore. This morning I felt really sick and I could hear them screaming in my head… and all of a sudden i didn't hear them anymore, or feel them at all."

"so they're gone for good?" sans asked.

"I don't know… but they're not here now." Frisk looked at sans who was observing them. He took his index bone and poked Frisk's nose, they drew back and put their hand over their nose and let out the smallest yelp. "Ow! sans!" They frowned at him.

"oh oops. why's it all blue?" He asked leaning in and staring at the bruise some more.

"I hit the floor too hard and now it's bruised"

"your skin changes color?" Frisk nodded. sans poked frisks cheek, it turned white under the pressure of his bone and when he lifted his finger the color rushed back to normal. "woah, does that hurt?" Frisk shook their head. Having sans look them over so intently made Frisk begin to blush. "heh, your cheeks are getting so warm" he put his cold hands on either side of Frisk's head and turned it to face him. Frisk started to sweat a little.

"what's wrong, am i making you nervous?" he smile grew ever so slightly. He dragged his finger across Frisk's chin and down their neck, a shiver was sent down their spine. "it's so odd to think that you're just a skeleton wearing skin… but you're so much more complicated than skeletons…" he dragged his finger over Frisk's collarbones and goosebumps began to form, pushing up the hairs on their arms and back of their neck. "who knew adding skin, muscle, and blood to a creature could make them so different." sans dragged his finger from their collarbone to where the left side of their chest and summoned their soul out of their body. It was a brilliant red, sans summoned his own soul and it hovered above the left side of his chest as well. It was yellow and blue. "but not too different" sans looked up at Frisk and smiled sweetly at them, sans allowed the souls to go back into their beings. sans entangled his fingers with Frisk's and leaned towards them. sans rubbed his forehead against Frisk's, his cheekbones were turning dark blue when he pulled away.

Frisk couldn't help but chuckle and leaned in to kiss his cheekbone. He froze instantly and a single bead of sweat formed on the back of his skull. He grabbed Frisk's midsection and swung them over onto his lap and hugged them tightly. this is nice, he thought. _everyone i love is alive. and frisk is the real frisk, no chara attached,_ he never wanted to let go.


	16. Chapter 16

[A/N: I focus too much on certain character more than others *cough* so here's a short chapter with some of the neglected characters.]

-Meanwhile, with Papyrus, Alphys, and Undyne-

"WOWIE! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE METTATON! IS HE AS FABULOUS IN PERSON AS HE IS ON TV?" Papyrus followed the two girls next door to the lab-house. When they walked inside Papyrus was overwhelmed with the sight of anime posters, bookshelves filled with anime and manga, and even a life-sized cardboard cutout of a girl with pink hair and cat ears. _HRM… I'M SURROUNDED BY NERDS…_ Papyrus thought but as he ventured further into the house he noticed weights left in careless places, a treadmill, dumbbells, and several other exercise equipment, _AT LEAST THEY KEEP IN GOOD SHAPE!_

"SO HOW DID TWO HUGE GEEKS LIKE YOU MEET THE FAMOUS METTATON?" Papyrus decided to inspect the fridge while they awaited the robot's arrival. When Papyrus opened the cold food closet he found it to be mostly full of vegetarian sushi, ramen, and a lot of take-out. _THEY SEEM TO HAVE POOR CHOICE IN NOURISHMENT. IT MUST BE HARD FOR UNDYNE AND ALPHYS TO TRAIN WHEN THEY EAT SUCH LITTLE PROTEIN. I WILL MAKE SURE TO MAKE EXTRAS WHEN I AM LEARNING FROM TORIEL!_ Papyrus marveled at his own ingenious idea when Alphys broke the silence.

"U-uhm actually I built him.. heh…" Papyrus' head snapped towards Alphys.

"OH? I HAD NO IDEA! THAT'S INCREDIBLE! NO WONDER ASGORE HIRED YOU AS THE ROYAL SCIENTIST!" Alphys took a step behind Undyne in a measly attempt to hide her embarrassment and tinted red scales.

"The last time I saw that guy all he did was lie seductively on the piano and eat grapes… he's weird but I admire his lifestyle!" Undyne piped in taking the attention off of Alphys who seemed to calm down and came out of hiding from behind Undyne's legs.

All of a sudden the door was kicked in. All three heads turned towards the entrance of the lab-house to see a tall humanoid-robot standing in the doorway. Mettaton EX came strutting inside, swiveling his [[or hers or its if you like but i'll refer to mettaton as a he]] hips as he walked straight for Alphys. He held his arms out as he approached her and gave her a big hug, picking her up off of the ground and squeezing her until Undyne stepped in and broke the two apart.

"Oh hello~ It has been far too long, darling! Oh and Undyne, have you been working out more than usual? You are buffer than ever I see!" Undyne's frown at the overly dramatic robot instantly turned into a huge grin as she was complimented. She nonchalantly flexed her biceps in appreciation to herself.

"Hey as a matter-of-fact, I have been working out extra hard lately!" It looked as if Undyne had a huge bowling balls and a softballs on either bicep. Papyrus seemed to appreciate this as much, if not more-so, than Undyne.

"WOWIE UNDYNE, AND HERE I WAS THINKING YOU WENT SOFT AFTER MOVING TO THE SURFACE WORLD! I HAVE TO CATCH UP ON MY OWN TRAINING, MAYBE I SHOULD BE A PROFESSIONAL TRAINER!"

"That would be perfect for you Pap! Hey maybe we can be trainers together! I don't exactly have a job right now with the royal guard being disbanded and all." Undyne scratched the back of her head awkwardly.

"I'll make sure to keep an ear out for any job openings~ I do have a lot of connections you know" Mettaton walked over to Papyrus and leaned in slightly observing the skeleton. "I don't believe we've met? I'm Mettaton EX, the new and improved by the lovely doctor Alphys over here," Mettaton threw his arm over Alphys' shoulders, her scales on her cheeks were turning red again and Undyne glared at the two out of the corner of her eye and crossed her arms. "But you can call me Mettaton, everyone else does!" Undyne began to grind her teeth when Mettaton didn't move his arm off of the lizard's shoulders.

"WOWIE I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M FINALLY MEETING METTATON! I USED TO WATCH ALL OF YOUR SHOWS IN THE UNDERGROUND! MY FAVORITE, OF COURSE, WERE THE COOKING BITS!" Papyrus was completely infatuated with Mettaton's presence.

"Ah yes 'Cooking with a Killer Robot'! I don't believe I shot another episode since the underground. Hm… I'll have to talk with my producer about that, it's a classic! Are you an aspiring chef?"

Papyrus thought about this for a moment before responding, "NOT SO MUCH AS A CHEF AS MORE OF A FOOD FANATIC! I USED TO ONLY DABBLE IN SPAGHETTI ARTS BUT I'M LEARNING ALL SORTS OF DIFFERENT FOODS NOW!"

"You wouldn't turn me down to be a guest on the first episode now would you, darling?" Mettaton stared seductively at Papyrus who seemed at a loss for words. "It's not a permanent job but at least it's something for the time being!"

"THIS IS EVEN BETTER THAN I COULD'VE EVER IMAGINED, NOT ONLY DID I GET TO MEET THE FAMOUS METTATON BUT I GET TO BE ON HIS SHOW TOO?!" Papyrus looked as if he might pass out from all the excitement but he stood strong.

"Now nothing is certain yet but I of course will be in touch when I find out!~" Undyne's jealousy got to the better of her and she stomped over to the two and ripped Mettaton's arm off of Alphys' shoulders and replaced it with her own. She stared down Mettaton.

"Maybe you forgot, but we're together now…"

"Oh honey, maybe you forgot, but I was Alphys' before you." Mettaton was taunting Undyne and Alphys began to sweat.

"I-I-I uh I've never had anyone fight over me be-before…" Alphys ducked from underneath Undyne's arm to remove herself from the crossfire of the glaring contest.

"Hey! What a great idea! Why don't we have a fight?" Undyne had a menacing smile on her face, she was confident and had no intention of losing. Mettaton on the other hand burst out in metallic laughter, he had no intent of fighting.

"No need, I have no intention of dating Dr. Alphys, no matter how beautiful she is" Mettaton pulled a rose out from behind his back and gave it to Alphys. Undyne's face was turning purple and she had been clenching and unclenching her fists to stop herself from punching him straight through a wall. Mettaton, was clearly enjoying the drama he was stirring up.

Papyrus exchanged a worried look with Alphys who was smiling nervously and fiddling with her claws. In an attempt to diffuse the situation, Papyrus changed the subject, "SO ANYWAYS…. MY FAVORITE EPISODE WAS THE COOKING BIT WITH THE HUMAN MAKING AN APPEARANCE. THEY ARE MY BEST FRIEND YOU KNOW." Papyrus stood tall and proud as he said this.

"Is that so? Frisk was certainly the most interesting candidate I ever had. In fact, they were the one that showed me how much everyone actually cared about my show! Without them I would have cancelled it and I would've never become a star on the surface! I owe my whole career to them, any friend of Frisk's is a friend of mine~" Mettaton winked at Papyrus and blew him a kiss, Papyrus began to blush.

Undyne rolled her eyes at the robot and crossed her arms once more. "Well I was supposed to have tea with Muffet, Gaster and Asgore today, I blew them off to keep an eye on Mettaton but you got that covered right Pap?" Mettaton was now draping his arm over Papyrus' shoulders. Papyrus seemed a little flustered and his cheekbones were starting to turn red, he was stumbling over his words, clearly uncomfortable with Mettaton's closeness but too polite to say anything.

"I think he can handle me, darling. Go have fun!" Undyne's face was a mix of anger, frustration and jealousy before she turned around and stormed out the door, slamming it behind her and causing the whole house to shake. Mettaton covered his mouth with his hand and giggled and how upset he managed to make her.


	17. Chapter 17

Undyne slammed the door behind her and started on her way to Muffet's bakery. She was still fuming and grumbling to herself, "Stupid Mettaton, I know he's just trying to make me mad and that makes me even MADDER!" She turned to a tree and punched it in half. She took a deep breath and decided to run to Muffet's, it was faster anyways. She sprinted up the path and knocked over a few monsters in her way.

When she got to Muffet's she was disappointed to see that she hadn't even broken a sweat! She seemed to have burned off most of her fury in exercise, however. She walked up to the two shops on either side of the entrance to the underground. On Muffet's door there was a note that said "Closed for lunch", the door was locked.

Undyne walked around to the back of the bakery to the back door. As she was walking around the shop she noticed something peculiar. There was a large scorch mark behind Grillbz. Undyne walked over to examine it.

Behind Grillbz was entirely grass, except for the one large circle of black. Undyne kneeled down and touched it. What made Grillby do this? Undyne thought to herself. Grillby was a pacifist, he never got into a fight that he couldn't solve by talking his way out, and Undyne never recalled him ever using his attacks. But who else could make such a thing?

Undyne decided to survey the area. She walked around the grassy area and found nothing. she ventured into the trees looking for any hint, some clue to what had happened.

It was then that something glimmering in the bushes caught her eye. She walked over to it and saw it was a knife, a kitchen knife. It looked oddly reminiscent of Toriel's set of knives she had in her kitchen….

Undyne kneeled down and picked it up to inspect it, it was stained red. But it was dry. _Human blood?_ Undyne wondered. She stood back up and scanned her surroundings. Nothing else in the forest seemed to be disturbed. The discovery of the knife raised even more questions, Grillby had magic, he would have no use for a knife in a fight… So then who... ?

She put the knife in her pocket to show Alphys later. When she went back to Toriel's she would check her knife block and see if there was one missing. But for now, she took a deep breath and walked to Muffet's back door and invited herself in.

The walls were painted purple and there were spider webs lining the ceiling. There was a quaint purple table in the middle of the room with a white lace tablecloth over top. The table was full of croissants, donuts, a tea kettle and several tea cups.

"Ahuhuhu~ What a surprise! Undyne, dear, I didn't think you were coming." As soon as Muffet saw Undyne she began to pour her a cup of tea with two hands (one holding the tea cup and other holding the kettle) and she set up a plate with croissants with a spare hand. "Enjoy~ Asgore grew these flowers himself!"

Undyne took a sip of her tea and she instantly forgot all the worry and confusion caused by the Grillbz mystery. Directly across from her was Gaster. He was glaring down at his tea cup.

"Gaster… are you alright?" Asgore put his huge paw on Gaster's back. He glitched under the monster's soft touch. Static was all that came out of Gaster's mouth when he tried to speak.

He glitched once more and slumped to the ground, shaking. Everyone jumped out of their seats and crowded around him.

"Gaster?! What do we do?" Undyne looked to Asgore for help.

"I… I don't know…" He had worry written all over his face. All he could do was stare down at his former royal scientist and friend as he suffered.

Gaster looked up at the three of them and opened his mouth again, only static could be heard but symbols written in Wingdings seeped out and floated around him.

"What….what does that mean?" Undyne was beginning to panic. "Maybe Alphys would know? She's smart, I'm sure she can figure this out..!"

"I think sans might be the best to ask…" Asgore kneeled down beside Gaster and put his paw on his head, "It will be alright, we will help you the best we can…" The symbols floating around him vibrated angrily and swirled around him. Gaster coughed and a scarlet liquid splattered the ground.

Undyne pulled out her phone and called sans. He picked up on the last ring before voicemail, "whats up?"

"YOUR DAD IS DYING AND WE DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! WE'RE AT MUFFET'S!" She was screaming into the phone hoping that, for once, sans pulled through with something.

"shit okay i'll be there" When Undyne hung up the phone, the static coming from Gaster grew louder, until everyone in the room had to cover their ears, all of Muffet's spiders scattered. If the monsters listened close enough they could make out some words through the static.

"n Oo noT sa AnnSSs…!" The same two symbols were being coughed up by Gaster. The two symbols swirled around Gaster's head. He coughed up more red liquid. _Blood?_ Undyne thought.

Sans threw the back door open a minute after Undyne hung up, she raised her eyebrows in question, "shortcut" he said simply, "where is he?" Undyne moved out of the way to reveal the taller skeleton lying on the ground on his side. He was still coughing up red and symbols.

"What does that mean? What is he saying?" Undyne was desperate for answers. Sans kneeled down next to Gaster and opened the black briefcase he brought with him.

"'ch...ch...ch…' that's all he's saying in wingdings. i.. i don't get it." He looked to Gaster who sat up and threw up more red. "gaster is this…?" He looked up to him with wide sockets. "...determination." Everyone in the room crowded around sans.

"He is vomiting determination? How is this possible?" Asgore frowned at sans's observation.

"i..i don't know… maybe i gave him too much before….?" Gaster collapsed. His static stopped, the symbols faded out of existence. He looked dead. "gaster?!" sans shook him but he didn't move. "i...i barely got to see you!" sans teeth pulled up into a grin, but his eyes were leaking.

Then all of a sudden Gaster sat up, everyone stared at him in surprise, but he refused to look at anyone, he just stared at the ground. "I'll be alright, I just need to rest" and so he stood up and walked out of the bakery without another word, he didn't look back.

When sans ran outside after him, he could find no trace of Gaster.


	18. Chapter 18

[A/N: lol i'm lousy at writing long chapters. Good thing this is like the 3rd chapter this week, that makes up for it right?]

 _Kill…. revenge…. destroy_

 _ **But...Asriel…**_

 _Forget about him fool! This is your true destiny! This is what you came here to do!_

 _ **Humanity doesn't seem so bad…..**_

 _Then let's give them a reason to show how they truly are!_

 _Stop please! Aster Why?!_ [Imagine this is written in wingdings]

 _Shut up! You've always held me back! This power… I've always craved this! Give me more!_

Gaster's hands were clasped around his skull as the three entities battled in his mind for power over his body.

W.D. [Wingdings will be referred to as W.D because i'm lazy] was shoved to the back of his subconscious.

 _Don't you remember what they did? Not only the war but all those greedy humans who try to kill those innocent monsters, don't you think they deserve to be punished? Look what they did to you and Asriel!_

… _ **.and my brother.**_

 _Yes! Yes exactly!_

Gaster opened his sockets, his eyelights were blood red. An eerie smile began to creep along his face. He looked around, he had been running, he was in the middle of the forest, but relative to Muffet's he had no idea where he was.

 _Hm… let's see.. can i-?_ Gaster sensed a portal through time and space nearby and stepped into it, a gust of wind ruffled his clothes and Chara curiously looked as they passed through, desperately trying to see the inside of the shortcut, but to no avail.

They arrived in similar surroundings. Trees everywhere. Gaster collapsed after arriving. He fell to his hands and knees and felt an immense pain sit upon his soul. He clutched his chest and summoned it out of his body. Their soul was almost completely scarlet red, the missing pixels scattered in space and time were filled with determination. There were still a few small specks of blue inside, for W.D. just couldn't let the two take over their entire soul. Although he was suppressed, the least he could do was to make sure W.D. Gaster wasn't lost forever.

Gaster pushed his soul back into his body and took a deep breath, gathering the strength, or perhaps the courage, to stand up and continue forward. Chara could sense where they were. It was all too familiar. It filled them with rage.

Floraville.

It looked almost entirely the same since they left.

The memorial was in the center of town, a bed of golden flowers. Something primal burned inside of Chara.

-written in wingdings- _is this…. but the plaque in waterfall says not a human soul was taken during the war._

 _Yes, not a single soul was TAKEN. There were still many humans who perished, but no monster absorbed a human soul. All of their souls safely floated to the heavens. But us monsters, our souls were absorbed._ Gaster began to grind his teeth, _They used the power from our souls to seal us in that damn cave! Our kind was slaughtered... What right did they have?! It's time for them to learn how we felt…._

A sick and crazed laugh erupted from Gaster.

He walked out of the shadows of the trees and started into town.

 _ **The key is to take them by surprise, once you get your first human soul they will have no chance against you. You will have the power to destroy them all!**_

As if on queue a red ball had rolled dangerously close to the woods that Gaster was watching from. Gaster pressed himself against a tree, he heard the small footsteps approaching, when they stopped, Gaster stepped out from behind the tree and summoned a cage of bones around the child. They looked up in horror and started to cry.

-written in wingdings- _ASTER NO! CAN'T YOU SEE? THEY'RE HELPLESS!_ W.D desperately tried to fight against Chara and Aster's determination, but they shoved him to the back of their mind and ignored him. Laughter escaped Gaster once more.

Gaster raised his hand upwards summoning bones from the ground up into the cage. The bones pierced through the child, blood pooled at Gaster's feet. He fed off of the child's innocent screams. He watched in amusement as their HP drained one hit point at a time until the child fell over.

Gaster threw his hand downwards commanding the bones to return to the ground. He stood over the lifeless body. A small yellow heart hovered over the child's body and slowly drifted towards the monster. He eagerly grabbed it and pulled it close to his chest, the two souls danced until they glowed white and fused into one another.

Their vision went white and when they opened their eyes they could feel the power surging through them.

They walked to the center of town to reveal their ultimate form to the town dwellers. A crowd had gathered around Gaster as he stood atop the bed of flowers.

 _ **Oh how delightful, they've all gathered in one place…. It almost seems too easy to kill them all.**_

Gaster summoned his blasters all around the crowd that was staring with curiosity around Gaster. They were all murmuring things like "is that a monster? what should we do? do we fight him? what weapons do we have?" At the sight of the blasters the people began to scatter, but a majority of them simply stared in horror at their own demise.

Brilliant bright light polluted the sky as all 8 of his blasters tore through all of those unlucky souls who couldn't will themselves to move. The lasers tore right through their skin and bone, they died with betrayal written on their faces. Gaster floated off of the ground to better scope out his surroundings.

Those who were running, Gaster killed by summoning bones up from underneath their feet, tearing through their soft flesh. All of the souls were floating towards Gaster and he greedily grabbed for all of them, shoving them into his chest. With each soul he could feel himself grow more powerful.

He summoned more Gaster Blasters once everyone in sight was dead. They charged and he aimed them at the buildings. First the school, gone. Another blaster summoned, then the orphanage, gone. The houses, the stores, everything, the lasers tore through it all as if they were nothing.

All that was left when Gaster was done was ash, soot, blood, and bodies. He returned to the ground and surveyed his area, he wanted to be sure there were no survivors. He kicked through the rubble and found not one soul that hadn't been absorbed by his being. His smile grew sickeningly. He couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh how EASY that was! I almost don't get satisfaction from it…. almost. In fact, this has made me crave MORE! Ah! This feeling! I never knew how great it was to be unstoppable, this is what I have been trying to achieve all these years, don't you see brother? Can't you feel the invincibility? No one can stop us now!"

The only part of the town that was salvaged was the bed of golden flowers that Gaster had been hovering above. His blasters had missed it entirely to avoid hitting himself.

Gaster glared down at the gravestone, "Here lie all of those lost in the monster war, may they rest in peace" Chara scoffed at the hunk of stone.

 _ **They wouldn't have died if you didn't start the war.**_ Chara sent their fist through the tombstone breaking it into pebbles and gravel.

[A/N: In case you guys were confused, the bolded italicized text is Chara, the regular italicized text is Aster and Wingdings is the one where i wrote "written in wingdings" next to. I tried my best not to make it confusing but 3 is a crowd and all!]


	19. Chapter 19

[A/N: Well it looks like we're reaching the end. I'm going to make 2 endings because I like how one of them ties into the update to Undertale, but it's not satisfactory. But hmmmmmm I wonder how they're going to solve this seemingly impossible problem.]

Sans scanned his surroundings looking for any clue as to where Gaster might have run off to, he looked ran around the shop and didn't see Gaster on the path back to the heart of the village of Ebott, and when he looked behind him there was no sign of movement in the shrubbery, it really did seem as if Gaster had disappeared...

 _there's gotta be a shorut around here somewhere, there's no way he could just dissapear in thin air… then again this is gaster, it's possible the determination stopped working as a force to keep him together seeing as he was throwing it up…._

"SANS?!" sans looked up to see Alphys jogging towards him, she was out of breath and was heaved over when she reached him, he looked at her with one browbone raised and a stiff smile. "Undyne called me… she told me everything that happened and I uh, well I wanna help! I'm a scientist too and we once used to be a great team! So uhm… please… let's get to the bottom of this together." She looked up expectantly at sans.

"then we'd better get started, I was going to head back to my lab in Snowdin, that's where all my research is." Sans held out his bony hand to her, she began to blush and stared at her feet, but refusing to give her claw to sans. "what you wanna walk all the way to snowdin? c'mon i gotta shortcut," she looked up at him and took his hand. sans lead her into the forest and pulled her through a shortcut, the sudden rush of air forced Alphys to blink and when her eyes reopened she was in the snowy fog on the path between Waterfall and Snowdin.

"Wha… how did you?" Alphys began to babble trying to find the right words for her question.

sans only winked at her and said, "i've spent my fair share of timelines studying space and time, it has its perks, and its secrets," she nodded at him and followed him to his old house. He lead her around the back and opened the door for her, and she gratefully walked inside happy to get out of the old and warm up some.

When sans shut the door behind them he saw that Alphys was staring at the machine covered by a white sheet, "S-so this is the machine that…. took them all?" she looked at sans and he nodded, she looked back at the machine, a shadow loomed over her face, "...there's no way of bringing them back is there?" She didn't have to look at sans who shook his head to know the answer. She took a deep breath and swallowed a large lump in her throat, "W-well, we'd better get started… what were you thinking?"

sans walked over to his creation and pulled the sheet off, "well… ever since gaster came back, he's been having those glitch episodes, right? well sometimes, when he was around only me, he would say things… sometimes in wingdings, sometimes in english.. he'd say things like 'help… it hurts us' and he would often call my name… i was a fool not to help him sooner…. i saw the signs, i knew something was happening, i just didn't know what." He walked over to the counter and shuffled through his drawer gathering a small pile of research to discuss with Alphys.

"Do you think that maybe the d-determination was hurting them?" Alphys leaned over sans' shoulder trying to read his papers as he scanned them looking for the most important research on determination.

"i thought that at first… but maybe it's not the determination itself, but what comes along with it," he looked over Alphys intently, but her eyes were cluttered with passing thoughts.

"I...I don't understand… I'm sorry…"

"do you remember chara?"

"The king and queen's child? The first human?" sans nodded.

"the reason asriel died after going through the barrier is because chara wanted revenge on humanity, and from my understanding of what frisk has told me it's because humans started the war with monsters. but asriel refused to hurt innocent people so they were able to defeat him because he refused to fight back."

Alphys scratched her head hesitantly "So what is Chara's relevance now?"

"chara came back when they felt frisk's determination, and chara is able to take over when frisk gains lv and exp"

"B-but how is that a threat now? Frisk doesn't have lv...do they?"

"no.. but they had determination, but now the one with the most determination is gaster…. so i'm afraid that chara has found a new host."

"Well, uh, h-how can you confirm this?" sans could see that Alphys was working very hard to put all of this together, she looked determined, she really did want to help to the best of her abilities. sans knew she was smart, he could use the help.

"frisk told me they don't feel chara's presence anymore. not only that but i've more experience with chara than i'd like to admit, so i know that look, the beady red eyes, the evil childish grin, the maniacal laughter…. but the questions is, how do we separate the three [chara w.d and aster] without scattering his essence through space and time, or worse, killing them… because he needs the determination to not only stay put together, but it's also the very being of w.d. gaster, ever since they became an amalgamate.."

"It might be best if we extract their DT… it may kill Gaster forever but the reward is far greater, the salvation of humanity…"

"i….i dunno alph, i don't think extracting dt is going to fix the problem… you didn't see him back at muffet's, you didn't see the look on his face… i think he's too far gone, there's no way we'll be able to capture him." sans was copying down research spread throughout his stack onto one easy-to-read sheet of paper for better reference.

Alphys was reading sans' notes as he was copying them down when all of a sudden her face lit up with an idea, "what about Flowey?"

"...what about flowey?"

"W-well he can absorb souls without stealing them, he doesn't have a soul himself so he can give them all back! S-so maybe if he can get more powerful than Gaster.. he an defeat him….?"

sans sighed, her idea was brilliant he had to admit, "but what makes you think flowey will cooperate? what makes you think he'll give back the souls?"

"Uh… well… I was thinking you could stay out and keep an eye on him, you're very powerful, so if you could weaken him enough to have all of the souls work together to escape, then the souls would be able to work against him until they're released… right?"

"...maybe, but it's risky... " sans groaned in frustration, "if only we could think of something else to replace the determination keeping his being alive! it had to be determination didn't it? he couldn't just be filled with happiness and survive off that?!"

Alphys put her hand on his shoulder and smiled at him, "I think a good frst step is tracking down Gaster… you can bring your research with us, when we find him we can see how dangerous he really is and hopefully we can capture him until we figure out a solution."

sans stayed silent as he took the piece of paper he had finished writing on and stared back at the machine and covered it back up with the sheet, he held the door open for Alphys and locked it behind him. They jumped back through sans' shortcut and when they walked out of the forest and back in front of Grillbz and Muffet's, they heard a loud explosion, and when they looked beyond the mountain they could see the sky lighting up, this weaponry was all too familiar to sans.

He stared at the mountain, his eyelights quickly fading leaving dark empty sockets, "...oh no"


	20. Chapter 20

[A/N: Awh geez I procrastinated this way too late, I ended up figuring out a way to fuse the two endings I had in mind, so there's probably one or two more chapters after this then the story is over! Thanks so much for reading!]

"alphys, quick grab my hand! ohnono…" sans grabbed Alphy's arm and yanked her into the woods where he darted into a shortcut dragging Alphys along with him, they returned in New Hope where everyone had gathered outside staring at the sky that was lighting up beyond the mountain.

"sa- what's going on?!" Alphys was looking up at sans with hopes of an answer, Undyne noticed the two and ran over to Alphys and hugged her.

"It's a celebration! Sarah and her husband said they're just fireworks, it's nothing to worry about!" Undyne had a huge grin on her face, but it faltered when she looked at the small skeleton, he had a shadow cast over his face and his sockets were lightless, "...sans?"

By now the whole group had gathered around Alphys and sans, sans fell to his knees and grasped his skull.

"ERM… BROTHER? WHAT IS IT?" Papyrus put his hand on sans' back, everyone looked concerned.

"this isn't a celebration, that kinda light could only come from one thing, a gaster blaster. and by how it looks, there's a lot of 'em…. and that's frisk's hometown isn't it? … i….i think it's… gone." _think god damn it! what the hell am i going to do? gaster has probably absorbed an entire village's worth of souls… there's no way i can stop him… i only have the one._

The lights beyond Mt. Ebott ceased to show in the sky. sans looked up, his lights were pinpricks.

"M-maybe if we all work together… we… we can? stop? him..?" Alphys knew there was no answer to this horrific problem. She knew they had to try…

"Fear not, friends, I have hope. If we all fight Gaster we can destroy him, Alphys would you kindly contact the humans for assistance?" Asgore summoned his trident, "Undyne, gather all of the monsters capable of fighting" Undyne nodded and started explaining to all of the townsfolk what was going on, she began recruiting the old royal guard first.

"Maybe contacting the humans is not the best idea, Asgore. They will see what damage a monster can cause, and if Gaster truly did destroy that village then… well all I can say is they won't be pleased." Toriel put her paw on Asgore's shoulder, her face was full of concern.

"Tori I do not think we can fight him alone…" Asgore responded in a loud whisper, directing his voice away from the others.

"YOU WON'T BE ALONE! YOU'LL HAVE ALL OF US BY YOUR SIDE! NYEH!" Papyrus then left to recruit more monsters.

Frisk walked up to sans and put their small hand on his skull, he looked up at them, "Do you really think we can fight him?"  
sans remained silent, Frisk ran back into their house and prepared for the worst, they equipped their Temmie armor and their real knife as well as stocking up on Toriel's homemade butterscotch pies and ramen. They ran back outside to see a small army has gathered in the center of town, when Toriel noticed Frisk she gasped and ran over to them grabbing their hand.

"My child this fight is much too dangerous for you! You must stay behind along with the other children," Toriel gestured behind the army towards where the small dinosaur kid, Moki [stands for monster kid], the rabbit kid from the inn, and a few other innocent monster children. They all seemed to be huddling behind one another unsure of what to do.

"But I can fight!" Frisk protested by puffing out their cheeks.

"kid, i think it's best we stay behind, let the professionals take care of it. see look, the whole royal guard is back together, they can handle it." sans was wearing that big smile of his and winked at Frisk. Frisk looked down at their shoes and kicked the dirt grumbling to themselves.

Toriel kneeled down next to Frisk, she had tears forming in her eyes, but she was wearing a huge smile that showed how proud she was of her child, "Frisk, be good, alright? I love you," she hugged Frisk tightly and she began to cry softly behind Frisk's back. She sniffled and wiped her tears before pulling back and looking at Frisk one last time and patting them on the head. She stood up and Asgore took her place.

He, too, was smiling proudly at Frisk. "Thank you for all you have done for us, for our family as well as all of monsterkind." He hugged Frisk just as tight, Frisk sighed into his fur, if something went wrong they could just reload their last save file. Their last save was right before they walked to the surface with their friends. They haven't been able to save outside of the underground, Frisk noticed.

He pulled away and Undyne came jogging towards them, she had changed into her old metal armor "Okay, we have everyone that is willing to fight," Alphys walked up to Undyne and fiddled with her claws.

"B-be safe.. i.. i lo-love you" Alphys tilted her head up in question for a kiss, since she was far too short she had to wait for Undyne to bend down; but instead Undyne picked up Alphys, hugging her tightly and spun away from the group. She was hiding her own tears that fell on top of Alphy's white lab coat, "Undyne?"

Undyne took a deep breath and said, "I love you too," and put her back down. There was a loud boom and a bright light lit up the sky, it came from the mountain. Everyone turned their heads, there was another boom and blast of light. Now they could see that a floating figure was carving a line in the trees with Gaster blasters. The path was leading straight to Ebott.

"He will be here soon, Alphys take those who are not fighting to safety, the rest of you, let us move." He raised his trident in the air and started to lead the rest away from Ebott up the mountain. Toriel was the last to leave, she waved one last time to Frisk and smiled sadly. Frisk lunged forward to try to run to her, to try to fight with them, but sans held them back. Warm tears dripped down Frisk's cheeks.

Alphys lead everyone into her lab house, they were all filed into the basement which was made like a sort of bomb shelter… for just in case. It was the safest place that was close by. sans pulled Frisk into his own house and shut the door behind them.

"look, kid, i think we both know what you gotta do. just load back to your last save or somethin', but our friends won't last one second against gaster..." he grabbed Frisk shoulders lightly, "he's omega flowey times like a hundred, i can't even stand up to him…" Frisk knew it would come to this, they nodded and began to concentrate hard, "wa-waitwait!" sans waved his hands at Frisk and they opened their eyes, sans ran to his room and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen, he drew three figures, Gaster, Papyrus, and Frisk. He wrote "don't forget" and brought the piece of paper back downstairs.

Frisk tilted their head to try to see it and pointed at it, raising their eyebrows. sans showed it to them, "just need'ta make sure somethin' like this doesn't happen again." He shoved the paper in his pocket and smiled wider at Frisk, "so where was your last save anyway?"

"Before leaving the underground." sans tilted his head first to the left then to the right.

"could be worse." they nodded.

"Ready?"

"yeah."

Frisk concentrated hard, they tried to remember the time they saved in the barrier, they tried to recall the feeling of determination they felt in that moment. They tried so hard, but they couldn't feel the save file. A stone dropped in Frisk's stomach, sans recognized the look on their face.

"what's wrong kid?" sans' eyelights shrunk as he guessed what Frisk was going to say.

"I..I think when Chara left.. they took away my power to save.. or-or maybe Gaster deleted my save files… he can do that now right?"

sans shook his head, "i dunno kid… if you can't reload your save can you do a true reset?"

Frisk closed their eyes again, they tried to reach for the reset button, they tried to muster up enough determination to feel any power at all, but they failed.

"I can't…."

sans' head shot up, his eyes were dark but his smile stayed like a mask his face.

"i have to help… papyrus.." he stood up and ran out of the house, the metal door slammed against the wall. Frisk began to panic, they knew no one could stand up to Gaster as he is now… but there was one more monster that absorbed souls before… maybe he knew?.

Frisk ran next door to their own house, it was hauntingly empty. They ran into their own room to see Flowey peeking behind the curtain over their window, when he heard the door close he turned to Frisk, "What's going on?"

"Gaster took a whole town's worth of souls,"

Flowey's face morphed into Asriel's, his voice quivered ever so slightly.."What do we do?" his voice was small and quiet.

"I came here to ask you that," Frisk replied stiffly. "You had seven souls in you at one time… and they managed to find individuality to help me when I called… Do you think it can happen with Gaster?"

Asriel turned back into Flowey, he was smiling, "Hey, yeah that might work! But we're going to need someone strong enough to stall him until the souls refuse to stay together…"

Frisk smiled, "What about you? You can just be a carrier for souls since you don't have one, so you can give them all back!"

An evil smile creeped across Flowey's face, "And how do you know I'm not just going to keep the souls?"

"Asriel," Frisk closed their eyes and smiled sweetly at the golden flower, " you've done everything in the underground, but up here, have you ever had a really cool fight between two gods? You being one of them?" Flowey's smile faltered as he took this information into consideration. "I believe in you, Asriel. I believe you can do the right thing."

Flowey turned his head away from Frisk to hide the blush that was flooding to his cheeks. "I'll do it."

Frisk gently hugged the small flower and hurried to the lab. They banged on the door to the basement until Alphys opened the door, "Fr-Frisk?! What're you doing out there? G-get inside quick!" She pulled Frisk inside and shut the door behind them. The color faded from her scales when she set eyes on Flowey, "Is.. is that a flower?"

Frisk nodded, "It's the one you injected with determination, Asriel's dust covered the flower bed, so now it has a will to live and Asriel's essence on him. He wants to help, we think since he doesn't have a soul he can absorb souls to stall Gaster until we can convince the souls to work against Gaster until they un-fuse, and then Asriel here can return all of the souls."

Alphys' face scrunched up in thought, there were flashes across her eyes as she calculated how well this could work. "W-well… I don't know, are you su-sure Frisk?" Frisk looked down at Flowey who was smiling up at them.

"Please? I want to help!"

Frisk looked back up to Alphys and nodded confidently, "Well I guess it's better than nothing.. We have to catch up to Asgore!" She looked back to the group of monsters who were shifting uncomfortably behind her, "F-follow us! We have a plan, " then Alphys shoved her way past Frisk, grabbed their arm and pulled them out of the basement everyone quickly filed out of the basement behind them, "We have to hurry!"

Frisk ran with Alphys, holding onto Flowey tightly. They ran up the path out of Ebott and followed the sound and light of the blasters. Not too far from Ebott they ran into Asgore and his army, they were huddled around him as they all talked over each other, it sounded like they were trying to come up with a plan.

When he turned around to deny someone else's suicide plan he noticed Frisk and ran over to them, Toriel followed, they had worry strewn across their faces.

"Small one what is it? Why are you here? You must leave, quickly, he will be here soon!" He lightly shoved Frisk back towards Ebott, Frisk firmly resisted.

"B-but we have a plan, Asgore!" Alphys stepped out from behind Frisk, "When Asriel died his d-dust spread over your garden. I used one of the flowers for my.. uh.. one of my ex-experiments, so this is Asriel without a soul… he thinks he can use all of our souls to fight against Gaster.. an-and since he doesn't h-have a soul he can return all of them.."

In that moment King Asgore fell to his knees in front of Flowey with tears in his eyes and embraced the small yellow flower. He said softly while trying to fight back tears, "There, there. Everything will be alright." He pulled away and wiped his face on his arm, "Asriel Dreemurr, we are so proud of you, we knew you would always accomplish greatness!" He had a huge smile on his face when Toriel kneeled down next to them, she also hugged Flowey and kissed his forehead.

"This time we will be here to protect you, my child."

Toriel and Asgore hugged flowey once more before they both stood up, Asgore faced his army and spoke, "I know it may be hard to believe, but my prince has returned! He was once a symbol of hope for our people, let him once again resemble our hope and determination!" Everyone laid out shouts of agreement. There was a boom and a flash of light only a mile or two away from them. Everyone went silent.

"There is only one way to defeat a being of that power, and that is with a monster with equal power." A flash of light blinded everyone when a Gaster Blaster cleared the trees leading straight to Asgore. "TAKE COVER" He yelled directing the monsters further into the trees just in time for a blaster to strike the path they were standing on.

" _ **It's more fun when they run**_ ," Gaster's voice spoke with three layers of voices.

Another blaster formed behind Gaster, it charged and the monsters scurried further away from one another. They all watched from the trees awaiting orders. They all shielded their eyes when the blaster fired.

Immediately after the boom a demonic high-pitch scream escaped from the monster. The laser had a direct hit through Gaster. He hunched over holding his midsection, his form glitched once and began to laugh maniacally. He straightened himself and turned around to see sans standing in the middle of the clearing, he had his hands in his pockets and a Gaster Blaster on either side of him, one socket was closed.

"can't letcha do that pal." sans snapped his fingers and the blasters began charging their beams, Gaster scoffed and dodged to the right as the lasers demolished the trees where Gaster was. sans raised his hand upwards and summoned bones underneath Gaster while charging lasers, when Gaster dodged upwards to avoid the bones two lasers made contact, another shriek left Gaster's mouth.

"IDIO-O-o-oOts!" Gaster glitched for longer this time, he clutched his skull, " _Where did you learn to dodge?_ \- **ME? COULDN'T YOU SEE THEM CHARGING?** \- _Enough! -_ **Finish him!"** Gaster dropped his hands and shot his hand out in front of him, bones materialized behind him and charged straight for sans, he took a step to the left.

Missed.

He cocked his head.

Missed.

He jumped into a portal and reappeared next to Gaster.

Missed.

sans slapped his hands together and two walls of bones appeared with Gaster in the middle, the wall swiftly closed in on Gaster before he jumped upwards avoiding the wall into a stream of bones that pelted him first in the torso then the face.

He fell to the ground and rubbed his face. sans laughed and summoned more bones upwards tearing through his body and pinning him to the ground.

"you're losing your touch, old man." sans had a shit-eating grin on his face, four blasters were charging all aimed towards Gaster.

Gaster's head transformed into a goat skull and a red beam of light and fire shot out of his mouth, it vaporized all of the blasters surrounding him and he broke out of his restraints with no effort.

sans jumped through a shortcut into Asgore, "hey kingy, i trust you've gotta plan?"

Asgore jumped at the sudden sight of sans, "Erm, y-yes,"

"then tell that to them," sans gestured at the monsters who had climbed the trees or were hiding in bushes, "i'll stall for ya." sans disappeared when Asgore blinked. When he turned his head he saw that sans was hopping around lasers and bones.

"Okay everyone listen up! We are going help Asriel defeat Gaster by lending him our souls!" the monsters began to gather around Asgore again, they all exchanged looks of worry and uncertainty, _["our souls?" "I don't like the sound of that" "Is that really the only way?"]_ "Yes I know that sounds scary, but we can all work together to defeat him by letting our hearts beat as one, by having one goal together, and because my son no longer has a soul, when this mess is all cleaned up he can return them all." In the end Asgore's hope, determination, and huge smile won over the monsters and they all kneeled before Flowey.

Undyne had been watching the fight between Gaster and sans, she was thoroughly impressed with how fast and agile sans was, he managed to dodge every attack Gaster threw at him.

A stone dropped in Undyne's stomach as she saw sans dodge a blaster and lost his footing on the landing and slipped. sans closed his eyes and crossed his arms teleporting out of the way of a bone attack but landing hard on his back behind Gaster and on the edge of the trees where Undyne was watching.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and willed herself to move, her legs felt like they were made of lead, or maybe it was her armor. Gaster spotted sans and smirked letting out a small chuckle, a blaster aimed straight for him, but Undyne lunged forwards snatching sans out of the way just in time. She put him on his feet and grinned, "No one said you had to do this alone."

sans refused to look at undyne, he was clenching his fists in his pockets, "yes. i do. i'm the only one that can do anything right now." and with that sans teleported behind Gaster to throw more bone attacks, Gaster dodged.

"LET ME HELP YOU!" Undyne stood up and summoned a spear and hurled it towards Gaster, his head snapped towards her and he fired a beam out of his mouth, hitting Undyne directly. Her eyes were open wide, she looked down to see herself begin to turn to dust.

"UNDYNE!" Alphys came running over to her, sans did the same.

"fuck, undyne look, this thing is going to destroy the whole world. i know you're powerful. i've seen it. i know that you can help save this world that we were all finally happy on."

"Undyne pl..please I know you can- you can do it.." Alphys was crying.

"My body… It feels like it's splitting apart. Like any instant… I'll scatter into a million pieces." She smiled at Alphys, "But… deep in my soul. There's a burning feeling I can't describe. A burning feeling that WON'T let me die." She glared at Gaster, "You'll destroy them all won't you? Everyone's hopes, everyone's dreams, vanquished in an instant. But I WON'T let you do that. Right now. Everyone in the world, I can feel their hearts beating as one!" Undyne's form solidified, "And we all have one goal, to defeat YOU." She smiled wider, "For the sake of the whole world, I, UNDYNE, will strike you down…" There was a bright form emanating from Undyne, so bright that sans and Alphys had to shield their eyes.

When they regained their vision they were met with Undyne the Undying. She had large spiked pauldrons on each shoulder and a white glowing heart in the center of her chest plate. Her gauntlets were white with a black heart on the side.

Alphys had snot running down her nose but she just stared in bewilderment. "c'mon we gotta go," sans grabbed the two of them and teleported to the other side of the forest narrowly missing a blaster. "so what's the plan?"

There were several loud crashes as the trees on the other side of the clearing began to topple over to reveal Omega Flowey. He consisted of mostly monster souls but he did have Sarah's family [3 souls] and Frisk [1 soul].

Gaster turned his attention to the new threat at hand. Alphys spoke up while he was distracted, "W-we have to convince the souls he has to work against him. Then they will all be purged from his body. As long as we keep th-the souls away from him after they leave we should be able to defeat him."

sans nodded, "okay, good plan." sans and Undyne jumped back into the center, sans blaster Gaster, he turned furious, Undyne hit him with a spear on the side, he turned towards her, omega flowey shot vines through him.

" _E_ - **e** - _NOU_ - **nou** - _GH_ - _ **gh!**_ _!"_

Gaster summoned 5 blasters and floated up over all of the trees, aiming the blasters downwards.

Frisk's voice called out from Omega Flowey. They called to Chara, "Chara, didn't you want to save the monsters? They were finally happy, and they still can be, with your help."

" _AuugghgHHH DON'T LISTEN!_ \- **But I've got my revenge, I destroyed the town I hate** \- _THEN DESTROY THE HUMANITY YOU HATE_ \- **I've been shown how kind humanity can be** \- _FINE I WILL DESTROY THEM_ \- _**Since when have you been the one in control?**_ "

The blasters shot off into all different directions aimed towards the sky. Gaster was clutching his head with one hand and firing various attacks at random, he looked like he was trying to his a fly that was buzzing around him but they all knew he was fighting with himself, fighting with the two dominant powers over this god.

Sans shot another bone attakc accompanied with a Gaster Blaster while he was distracted, Undyne summoned a storm of spears, and Omega Flowey shot out more thorned vines and dropped bombs on top of him.

He screamed, whether it was from his internal conflict or the onslaught of attacks, it was unclear. It was then that Wingdings appeared in the layer of speech. The symbols floated around his head as he said three different things in three different voices. To Omega Flowey, sans and Undyne it was an inaudible argument.

A gentle mix of voices spoke out from Omega Flowey as sans and Undyne continued to attack Gaster, "Townspeople of Floraville, please I know you're in there," Omega Flowey had to dodge a wall of bones cast by sans that was deflected by Gaster, "if you all fight against this…" the face on the screen turned to disgust ,"this beast, fight against his power, find your own determination, if not for revenge then for your entire race!" Gaster was beginning to glitch in and out, his goat skull was shifting and forming in between the goat skull and Gaster's skull and his body was starting to form into a blob as the souls fought against his form.

Omega Flowey, Undyne and sans all looked at one another and nodded. It was time. They all bombarded Gaster with attacks knowing fully well he was not able to dodge or defend himself. Sans surrounded him with three blasters and shot up bones from underneath him, Undyne hurled her spears at him from all different angles, being sure to stay out of range of sans' blasters, and Omega Flowey summoned bombs and lasers to target him.

They continued attacking until Gaster fell from the sky, he lay limp on the ground. sans was the first to approach him, "sorry it had to end like this, pops." and with that sans thrusted his hand upwards impaling him with bones from the ground up, Gaster made a choked cough before spitting up red and closing his eyes.

When he closed his eyes his form morphed, bubbled, and glitched until his body exploded into hundreds of souls. All of the human souls floated upwards before drifting towards sans, sans backed up leading all of the souls away from Omega Flowey and Undyne, when they were at a safe distance away sans teleported back to them so there was a cluster of souls in the clearing.

One soul, Gaster's soul, was left sitting on the ground, it was a swirled mixture of red and light blue and it was trembling, threatening to break apart into a million pieces.

"make sure this one doesn't get away," sans said to Omega Flowey. Flowey winked on his screen and moved towards the souls, it got sucked up into his being and absorbed. sans shrugged, "i guess that works... just wait until the human souls are gone before returning everyone's."

Undyne plopped down on the ground with her legs crossed, "MAN what a workout that was, it was incredible, YOU were incredible. I just… wow I can't believe that worked. I thought I was dead!"

sans chuckled lightly, "heh.. are you kiddin'? you're undyne the undying!" sans walked over and sat down next to her, the three of them watched the colorful souls float upwards beyond the clouds until they were out of sight.

Omega Flowey spoke up, "Wow. I forgot how fun it was to have a challenge. To not be able to predict, to not know all the weaknesses already!"

"well, now that we're out of the underground, life is full of surprises."

"I can't wait," Flowey replied as his Omega form glowed brightly. When the light faded all of the monsters were back, they all cheered and hugged one another. Every monster was there… except for Flowey.

sans raised one browbone and called out, "where's flowey?" Frisk walked up to sans and gave him a big hug, sans nuzzled his skull against their forehead, "ya did good, kid." When Frisk pulled away sans noticed a small goat monster hiding behind them. "...asriel?" sans leaned over to look behind Frisk to confirm his suspicions.

"I...I thought I gave them all back! I don't know why this one stayed!" Asriel was playing with his paws and looking down.

sans looked around the gathering of monsters and counted, "well… who are we missing?"

Alphys walked out from behind the trees over to sans, "Gaster." sans eyelights flickered momentarily.

He lowered his voice so only Alphys could hear him, "what should we do? gaster and flowey don't seem like a good combo."

Alphys shrugged, "I think it'll be okay. S-since Gaster's soul was like half d-determination, and Flowey's whole existence is possible because of determination, the soul must've attatched to his body. As long as Asriel doesn't lose determination to keep the soul stable, I-I think he should be… okay?" Alphys was wearing an uneasy smile.

"well… we just gotta keep an eye on him."

"So I can keep it?" Asriel had hope in his voice, "the soul? I don't have to give it back?"

"nope, it's all yours _kid._ heh, get it? 'cause you're a baby goat.

Asriel puffed out his cheeks and clenched his fists by his side, "I am not a baby!" sans chuckled and when Asgore and Toriel noticed Asriel has returned to his old self they both hugged him as tight as they could.

"Oh, Asriel, we have missed you so, so much. You were always in our hearts," Toriel said.

"Yes and we are so proud of you, my son. None of this would have been possible without you!"

And so the monsters celebrated in the clearing congratulating one another and praising on how well they did to work together.

They were all happy until the U.S. Army surrounded them.

[A/N: I get flustered when writing fight scenes. Hopefully Gaster wasn't beaten too easily, he was already unstable from not having his whole soul there on top of all of the souls and his determination (Chara) working against him. PLUS all of the attacks from Omega Flowey, sans, and Undyne the Undying, idk I thought it might be enough.]


	21. Chapter 21

[A/N: There's one more happy chapter on it's way I promise- also this chapter was accidentally published before it was ready, so here's the one that was supposed to be published, sorry… ]

All of the monsters huddled in a circle as hundreds of men surrounded them pointing threateningly but standing still awaiting orders. A man stepped forward, he said something into his radio on his shoulder and all of the army men sprung to life, they were putting handcuffs around every monster and even around the four humans, including Frisk.

They were all shoved into armored vehicles. When they were escorted out they were met with a large concrete facility that was surrounded by wire fences topped with barbed wire.

Asgore and Toriel were taken away from the rest of the monsters into a small room with a table, three chairs, and a single bright light in the middle of the ceiling. The general gestured inside the room and the two boss monsters hesitantly entered and took a seat

The general spoke first, "So, an entire village was wiped out and when we followed the damage to the mountain it lead us straight to monster town, got anything to say about that?" he leaned back on his chair and pulled a cigar out of his pocket and placed it in his mouth.

Toriel took a deep breath, "There was a…. bad monster that wanted to destroy monsters, humans, everything. He was very powerful but we all fought back and defeated him." Toriel was stiff but she was sitting up straight and spoke confidently.

The general chuckled and twirled a lighter around his fingers, "And what happened to him? He just… poofed? Disappeared? Cute story but here's what I think," he leaned in closer and lit his cigar taking a large drag and blowing it in Toriel's face, Asgore coughed and Toriel waved the smoke away, "I think one of _you_ did it, and I'm gonna interrogate every monster until I find out which one it was. Hell it might've been all of you for all I know, so if you want your little monster friends to live a happy-go-lucky free life out of prison then you better start talkin'." He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

Asgore cleared his throat before talking, "*Ahem* As I'm sure you know, sir, a monster's soul lacks the determination to exist after death, and so when Gaster, that was his name, died his soul shattered." Toriel glanced sideways to Asgore and flinched slightly at his lie, but the general seemed fixated on Asgore and didn't notice.

"Oh sure, sure. Well then where's the proof?" He smiled deviously awaiting their allaby, Toriel and Asgore exchanged glances but neither one said anything, "So how do I know the threat doesn't still exist and you're protecting it for, oh I don't know, the destruction of humanity?"

"We would never! Ironically enough monsters are more compassionate that you humans are," Toriel spat infuriated, "So we had one bad monster, your whole race is cruel! You locked an entire species away just because, what? You wanted to rule the surface?" Asgore put a paw on her shoulder and she immediately shrunk down and looked down at the table.

The general scoffed, "If what you say is the truth, then how could we possibly allow your… _kind_ ," the word sounded vile coming from his mouth, "to exist alongside humans. If a monster decided to turn on a human for whatever reason, curiosity? Power? They have built in weapons, humans are defenseless for the most part, and if one monster got this powerful so easily, who's to say it won't happen again?" He glowered at them from across the table, neither one answered, "An entire town was wiped out today." Toriel flinched, "We need to make sure that won't EVER happen again." He stood up and walked to the door, "I think we're done here," he said as he turned around and gestured a lazy salute before shutting the door behind him leaving the monsters in silence.

Several hours passed before the general heard the stories of every monster and human involved in the disappearance of Floraville. The stories matched up for the most part, but one key element was left out of the king and queen's story. Asriel. They confessed that Asriel had been the biggest factor in defeating Gaster, and when Gaster was defeated he absorbed his soul.

This information was crucial to the army, they detained Asriel and took him away to another facility for questioning and tests. He was cuffed both around his wrists and around his ankles when he was shoved into another armored vehicle, he felt terrified, he had no one to protect him if he called for help, he felt more scared now than he did standing in front of Chara after he killed Asgore... the memories sent a shiver down his spine and he whimpered quietly before tears began to soaked his fur.

The men walked around to the back of the car and slammed the doors shut blocking off Asriel's view of the facility just as monsters began reforming in the yard, they were piling out of several different doors from the building, they all remained cuffed and there was one soldier assigned to every two monsters.

The vehicle started up with a loud rumble and Asriel was thrown by every bump and turn in the road. It felt like an eternity before the car slowed, Asriel heard the soldiers up front say something to someone outside, it was muffled. There was loud metal clanking, it sounded like a fence opening up, and the car started moving again, a few minutes later it stopped and the men hopped out of the front seat and walked around the back, throwing open the doors.

One of the soldiers pointed a gun at Asriel and gestured out of the vehicle, he crawled forward and tried to step out but his ankle chain got tangled around his foot and he fell face first onto the ground, a warm stinging started at his nose and he could feel some blood drip down his chin. One soldier laughed while the other grabbed Asriel's arm and threw him to his feet and shoved him forward, Asriel stumbled but steadied himself before being lead into another concrete building.

The soldiers put their ID's up to a scanner near the door, it beeped and a light at the top of the door turned green and the glass door slid open. Asriel walked inside and was met with the smell of chemicals, he scrunched up his nose in protest then flinched at the pain it provoked. The walls were painfully white and the floors were a light tan and tiled. It was cold against his bare feet.

They stopped in front of a room, and again scanned their ID's, the door opened and they pushed Asriel inside, they stayed guard outside of the door. Asriel's chains prevented him from being able to catch himself and so he fell again on the tile, it made his headache and painful tingles scattered across his face.

"O-Oh! Asriel… are you alright?" Alphys ran over to the small goat monster and helped him up, he grunted when standing up and Alphys lead him over to a chair lined up against the wall. Asriel took in his surroundings, the walls were metal plated and there was a large tube in the middle of the room, it was made of glass and had a mess of wires at the top connecting to a big machine, there were tools sprawled out on the ground.

A few soldiers stood behind Alphys along with three human scientists and two engineers, Asriel's voice came out hoarse and small, "Alphys? W-what's going on? What're they going to do to me?" Alphys' smile fell.

"Well… in order to-to have monsters live with.. uh humans again, they want to make sure m-monsters aren't a threat to them… They want to keep you here until w-we figure something out."

Asriel let out a few small coughs in an attempt to steady his voice, "Any ideas?"

Alphys was looking down at her claws and scratching at the sides of them, "N-nothing that you're going to like… I w-was thinking that we could create a device that acts as a sort of… containment for magic…" Alphys looked up at Asriel who had the faintest hint of hope in his eyes, "b-but in order to do that we need to incorporate magic into something… I was thinking m-maybe metal bracelets? Uh.. and well the problem is... we need to take your magic..away from you... " Asriel's eyes widened, he looked around the room and the scientists took a step towards the small monster.

He felt his heart pounding in his chest, "Won't that….kill me?" There was a lump in his throat that was hard to swallow.

Alphys sighed and looked at her feet, "I-it might… but if anyone has a chance of living afterwards… it's you. You have become the form of monster determination, I-I think if we take your magic away you w-will carry enough determination to keep on living aft-afterwards…" she looked back up at Asriel, he was uneasy, "...we need your magic to create a device that can both re-recognize and contain monster magic so it can't leave their being…" Asriel sadly nodded, he knew this was something he had to do, "d-don't worry though, the machine isn't ready yet, you-you can still have your magic for a few days at least…"

That night the monsters were allowed to return to Ebott under close supervision of the National Guard, when everyone was reunited, they realized that Asriel and Alphys were missing. Toriel, Asgore, and Undyne were distraught and frantically asking all the monsters if they had seen them.

Undyne decided to stay the night with Papyrus and sans, they watched action movies all night, sans fell fast asleep before the movie even started, but Papyrus managed to make it half way through. Undyne stayed up the whole night, she couldn't help but wonder if Alphys was okay, and how Undyne could help her. However, Undyne knew there wasn't much she could do under all of this supervision.

All they could do was hope their dear friends were going to be all right.


	22. Chapter 22

[A/N: **If you read my last chapter within 8 hours of it posting you need to read it again! I accidentally uploaded the wrong one** ;~; Also I lied, there's one more happy chapter after THIS one.]

Asriel woke up to the loud banging of a hammer on metal and various tools buzzing and whirring. When he opened his eyes he squinted at the florescent lights above and sat up, someone must have moved him onto the bed. He saw Alphys looking over some papers on a clipboard and pointing to things on the machine attached to the large cylinder in the middle of the room.

Asriel blinked the last of sleep out of his eyes and looked around, there were a couple of scientists looking in a microscope and writing things down and there were soldiers sitting on either side of the door, each holding an assault rifle.

Alphys turned around to walk towards the scientists when she noticed Asriel was awake, "Oh! Good you're awake… h-how're you feeling?" Asriel shrugged, "...A-anyways I have news. Th-the machine to...uh...extract your magic should be up and running by t-tomorrow… and and! There's a 97.6% chance of success!." Asriel sighed and hung his head low. _They're going to take my magic away…. how can I call myself a monster without any magic… I knew it was too good to be true… to be a family again._ Asriel clenched his fists at his sides, he summoned three small fireballs in front of him and watched them dance.

The army men stood up and pointed their guns at Asriel, his heart fell into his stomach and he immediately extinguished the flames, Alphys walked in between them, "S-stop! H-he's going to lose his magic forever, he pr-probably just wanted to use it one last… one last time…. Right Asriel?" Alphys desperately looked at the goat monster, he nodded quickly and the two soldiers took a step back and lowered their guns.

One of them stuck out his index finger and pointed at Asriel, "Don't let it happen again." The soldiers settled back down in their chairs. Asriel was trembling, Alphys tried to put her hand on his shoulder but he pulled away.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Asriel blurted out. Alphys looked taken aback but pointed to a door on the wall across from them, it looked like a plain wooden door in a room plated with metal. As he walked across the room he noticed the guards were glaring at him and shifting their guns to casually remind him who was in charge. When he got to the door he opened it and locked it behind him.

The walls were white and there was a single painting on the wall across from the toilet of a lighthouse at sunset with the sea in the background. There was a mirror and a sink beside on the left wall. Asriel walked up to the mirror and stared into himself.

Could he remember what it was like to be happy? Wasn't it only yesterday he felt happiness? It felt like decades. Is it worth it to have a soul if it just makes you weak? He felt scared and sad all the time.

He thought back to when he had power, when he was Omega Flowey again, he could feel every soul working _with_ him! They all encouraged him and use their soul to make his being stronger, and it worked…

He pulled his soul out, it was grey just like any monster's. He let it drift back in and summoned a fireball, then two more, he made them twirl and dance. Asriel stared into the flames and thought about Alphys _. It's her fault I'm in here in the first place… Humans don't know anything about monsters, they would never figure out how to remove my magic… Why is she working with_ them _?_ Asriel's lip pulled up into a small snarl.

He flinched when he heard a loud pounding on the door, "HURRY UP IN THERE!" It was one of the soldiers. Asriel sighed to calm the thumping in his chest and extinguished his flames. He unlocked the door and walked out, the hard stare of the soldier made his cheeks feel hot, he stared at the ground on the walk over to his bed.

He looked up to see Asriel crouched behind the machine with a screwdriver, all of the scientists were crowded around it pushing buttons and turning dials while writing things in their clipboards.

Asriel laid down and turned his back to everyone so he was facing the wall. He closed his eyes and thought of his family… now including Frisk. He felt sadness tug at his heart when he thought about how he may never see them again. He finally has a soul and feelings in an unpredictable world and there's a chance he might die. _I wonder if they're thinking about me… I wonder if they're worried…_ A tear rolled down his cheek before he fell into a restless and uneasy slumber.

* * *

\- Meanwhile in Ebott -

When Frisk woke up they walked down the hall and heard the soft crying of Toriel. They peeked around the corner to see her kneeling on the ground in front of Asgore, she was buried in his shoulder and shaking. Asgore had his forehead pressed against the back of her's and he was rubbing her back with his giant paw.

Frisk felt a pang in their chest upon seeing their parents so torn up. They quietly snuck past the grieving monsters and lightly closed the door behind them when they got outside. Frisk knew they needed this time alone.

They walked a few steps forward and looked to the lab house. _Undyne probably wouldn't want to stay there without Alphys_ , Frisk nodded at that thought and started to walk to the Skelebros' house.

"hey kid." Frisk turned back towards their house to see sans leaning up against the side. "long time no see."

Frisk walked over to him, "Where did you go yesterday? I didn't see you when we were getting questioned."

sans shrugged, "what can i say? i don't like being shoved into cars with guns pointed in my face, so i poofed."

Frisk could feel their face getting hot, "You could've helped us! You're the stronge-" sans slapped his hand over Frisk's mouth, the eyelights were absent from his eyes.

" _ **e**_ " He pulled Frisk closer against their house with his hand still over their mouth, a couple of soldiers were walking down the road in silence. _They were patrolling,_ Frisk thought.

sans let go of Frisk, when Frisk turned around sans was still smiling and his eyes were as bright as if nothing happened, "if ya wanna talk let's go to my place." Frisk nodded and sans grabbed their hand and pulled Frisk across the lawn and into his house.

Frisk noted the absence of Papyrus and Undyne, "they went back to undyne's to train to rescue alphys." Frisk said nothing and plopped on the couch in the living room. "so what is it you were sayin' back there?"

Frisk took a deep breath and said, "You have the most power but you just ran! You could've helped us… you could've done something… And now Alphys and Asriel are gone and I don't know where they went or if they're coming back or if they're okay, and… and…" Frisk could feel hot tears streaming down their cheeks, their fists were clenched and shaking at their side.

"aw geez kid, i ran because now i'm the only one in ebott without a record. they took your fingerprint and picture when they interviewed you right?" Frisk nodded and sniffled loudly, "so what use would I be if they knew who I was?"

Frisk crossed their arms, they didn't believe him, it was a poor excuse and they think he was just scared so he ran.

sans let out a soft sigh, "plus alphys is our spy on the inside," sans winked and pulled out his cellphone from his jacket pocket, "alphys made a magic firewall for our phones so _they_ can't see it. we've been texting. she found out the humans won't let us go until we are guaranteed not to even be able to hurt a human. so alphys and i were bouncing ideas off of each other and we came up with a blueprint for a bracelet."

He started scrolling through his phone until he got to the message with the blueprint, Frisk pointed at the note that said "magic infused". sans looked at Frisk and shook his head, "yeah, that's the other thing. we're going to need magic to be able to contain monster magic so it won't leave a monster's body, that would kill them, but it can't leave far enough to harm anyone, so magic can only be thrown a few inches before it goes through the invisible barrier the bracelet creates and dissipates."

"If-If monsters die without their magic, what'll happen to Asriel?" Frisk could feel themself getting worked up again.

"alphys and i think he's the only one who can do this, since his existence is mostly determination. If we extract his magic he should be able to live on pure determination, kinda like you frisk." He put his hand on Frisk's head but they took a step backwards.

Frisk looked down, "Poor Asriel…"

"yeah.."

* * *

\- Meanwhile with Undyne and Papyrus -

The two were both running on a treadmill at a remarkable pace while lifting weights. Undyne looked to Papyrus, "Hey, Pap.."

"YES, UNDYNE?" Papyrus looked to Undyne and smiled.

Undyne looked at her feet and slower her pace ever so slightly, "I miss Alphys…"

"...ME TOO. BUT I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT ALPHYS AND ASRIEL ARE GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT!"

"Ya think so?"

Papyrus nodded, "I KNOW SO! ALPHYS IS THE SMARTEST MONSTER I KNOW! AND SHE IS THE ROYAL SCIENTIST, FLUFFYBUNS DOESN'T GIVE OUT THAT JOB TO JUST ANYONE!" Undyne chuckled. "AND DIDN'T ASRIEL JUST KINDA SAVE OUR BUTTS AGAINST MY DAD?"

"Yeah, he kinda did." Undyne picked up her pace again, Papyrus ran faster to match hers.

"AND THEM PUT TOGETHER IS A REALLY COOL TEAM!" Undyne nodded again and laughed.

"Thanks, Pap. You always know the right things to cheer me up" She closed her eyes and gave Papyrus a big smile. He smiled back.


	23. Chapter 23

[A/N: Thank you all for staying with me and encouraging me to finish! I love all of you!]

 _It was time. Today. There's a chance I can die today… I had so much magic, so much power just a couple of days ago… and now never again_. Asriel was laying in his bed pretending to be asleep while listening to the bangs, buzzes, and murmurs of the scientists finishing the last preparations for the machine.

Then, the room went silent. A stone dropped in Asriel's stomach. He knew it was now. He felt a hard, cold hand touch his shoulder, it was Alphys, "Asriel? A-Are you ready?"

He rolled onto his back and sat up, he didn't look at her when he nodded. "O-Okay," Alphys offered her hand to help him off the bed, but Asriel jumped off ignoring her. He knew it was childish but he couldn't help blaming Alphys for this. "J-Just uh, step into this glass cylinder o-okay?" Asriel stepped in front of it and waited for the scientists to open it.

There was a loud hiss and the tube opened like a door, there was a constant flow of air coming from it. "W-We are putting oxygen into it, s-so you can breathe better," Alphys looked down at her feet, " I-I know I would have trouble br-breathing if i was getting my magic taken away, so.. so i just thought…" She began to sweat and fiddled with her claws, "O-Oh I shouldn't have said it like that.. uh.. well a-anyways…." She looked down again.

Asriel took a deep breath and walked through the glass doorway, a shiver rushed up his spine when the pads of his feet touched the cool metal. Asriel could see 2 women pushing buttons into the machine and the door slammed, trapping him inside. There was a constant hissing coming from the metal floor that ruffled his clothes.

Alphys walked up to the glass and put a hand up to it, she said something but Asriel couldn't hear anything. He read her lips, "I'm sorry".

There was a loud electrical buzzing that came from the top of his prison, and then a loud ringing began in his ears. A large blue light began to charge and get bright at the top of his cylinder. It hurt his eyes, he closed them.

It happened in slow motion, it started at the top of his head, it felt like incredible amounts of pressure pushing against his skull. It traveled down the rest of his body, his ribs felt like they could cave in and tear apart at the same time. His heart, no, his _soul_ felt as if it was ripping in half.

He could feel the magic leaving his bones, it was agonizing, Asriel didn't even notice he was screaming. The magic left through his throat and out his mouth. Then everything went black.

Asriel collapsed to the floor. Alphys ran up to the two women controlling the machine and began frantically screaming at them to open it. Two soldiers ran over to Alphys and dragged her back.

There was a glowing ball of magic that collected at the top, it was caught in the blue beam and traveled through the wires that were connected to the machine.

There was a large flask screwed into the machine. It shook and sputtered, but the blue, shining magic began to pour into the flask.

When the flask was full one of the women pushed a button and the machine stopped suddenly. The door to the glass cylinder swung open and the soldiers let go of Alphys. She ran across the room and kneeled down in front of Asriel, she put her finger up to his throat. He was alive, but barely.

Alphys rushed over to a drawer and pulled out a mask, she attached it to a tank of oxygen, which she rolled over to Asriel's bed, she looked at the soldiers who were laughing off to the side, "Carry him, please."

One of them rolled their eyes and tossed his gun to the other, he walked over to Asriel and easily threw him over his shoulder, "Care-careful! He-he's having trouble breathing!" The soldier tsk'd and gently placed him on the bed. Alphys quickly covered his mouth with an oxygen mask. It was then her phone buzzed in her lab coat. The soldier was walking away, she pulled it out.

It was sans. " _how'd it go?"_ Alphys didn't even have a chance to reply when she heard footsteps behind her.

"Whatcha got there?" It was the soldier who carried Asriel. Alphys flinched and turned around, he snatched the phone out of her hand and threw it on the ground, "No phone while on the job." The other soldier burst out in laughter. Alphys bent down and picked up the remains of her phone. I might be able to fix this… maybe… Alphys thought to herself. She stuffed it in her pocket and looked down at Asriel. Even while unconscious he looked pained.

A nurse walked over to Alphys and put a hand on her back. "I'm sorry about your phone. Those guys are jerks." Alphys couldn't help but clench her fists. "They're not all bad, you know…" Her tone was gentle. "That one monster just scared us… that's all." She smiled at Alphys but she said nothing in return. "I'm glad we could figure out a way for us to live together. And it's great to hear that your friend is doing well after the.. Uh.. surgery." Warmth and positivity filled the atmosphere with her presence. Or maybe Alphys had just forgotten what a nice person was like. It was refreshing.

Alphys was filled with hope and confidence. She looked down at Asriel and back at the nurse, "We need to make s-sure that he always has oxygen, th-there needs to be a nurse watching him at all times." Alphys turned to the small crowd behind her, they were all busying themselves with the magic they had collected before two scientists took the vial out of the room. A scientist stepped in front of Alphys.

"That's not our problem anymore. This is the extent of our agreement." She, along with the others, slowly filed out of the room. Alphys couldn't help but stare after them.

The Nurse stood by her side for a few moments after the room had emptied, "Things will get better from here, you'll see." She smiled one last time before leaving Alphys alone with Asriel. She looked down to see Asriel, he was breathing normally. She sighed in relief and put a claw on his forehead, his fur was drenched in sweat.

Alphys couldn't help the tears from escaping her. "I-I'm so sorry… Asriel…"

* * *

Weeks passed before Ebott heard anything from Alphys or Asriel.

At first Frisk blamed sans. They blamed him for not "popping" in and checking on them. Or for not even trying. But Frisk knew the risk was too great. The humans couldn't know about sans. They couldn't know how strong he is.

Toriel blamed herself. Most days she stayed in her room with the door shut. When Frisk opened the door they realized that Toriel was buried in textbooks studying to be a teacher. They decided not to bother her.

Asgore didn't blame anyone. He always had hope that his son and trusted scientist would return, it was only a matter of time. Every day he would say, "A new day is before us little one, it is full of opportunities!" But he would look a little sadder at the end of each night.

That was until Alphys walked back into Ebott one day with Asriel in a wheelchair and an oxygen tank. sans was the first to see them.

He ran over to them and stared in disbelief at the two, "alphys? asriel? where the hell have you been?"

Alphys sounded annoyed, "Someone smashed my phone… and.. And they wouldn't l-let us leave until they created the first successful device... " sans' eyes darted to Alphy's wrist to notice a thick metal bracelet that had a faint orange aura surrounding it.

"oh. but you're okay right, _kid."_ Asriel stared unamused at sans. "get it? 'cause you're a goat monster, heh. i crack myself up."

Alphys at least smiled, ever so slightly. "Asriel has been steadily healing. His soul took th-the most damage but his d-determination is strong enough to fill in where the magic was…. It just takes time."

Sans pointed at Asriel, "and the wheelchair?"

"W-well our bodies function with magic, s-so his body needs to learn how to function w-with determination instead.

Asriel spoke from behind the oxygen mask, "But I'll be able to do it. Look I can move my feet now!" sans looked down and sure enough his big paws were wiggling. sans chuckled.

"good, i can't wait till ya get better." Sans looked back on the town, "hang on, wait here, everyone's been dying to see ya." He ran down the path to Asgore's house first, after several minutes the two goat monsters and Frisk ran out of the house to greet them, Toriel had tears in her eyes.

"I never doubted you would return! I am just so happy that day has finally come!" Asgore bent down and hugged Asriel.

"But.. but I'm not a monster anymore.." Asriel said sadly.

Toriel hugged Asriel next, "My child, it does not matter to us whether you have magic. Chara did not have magic, Frisk does not have magic, what difference does it make?"

Next Undyne came charging down the path and grappled Alphys, "You were gone for so long!"

"I-I know b-but we were taken to this facility and and we had to come up with a way for humans to f-feel safe around monsters and and-" Undyne interrupted.

"Stop. I don't care. Tell me another time, I'm just glad you're safe." Undyne gave her famous smile and kissed Alphys on the cheek.

Sans returned with Papyrus, "I KNEW IT BROTHER, DIDN'T I TELL YOU THEY WOULD COME BACK!"

"ya sure did, pap."

Alphys and Asriel found themselves buried in a group hug. And for the second time since gaining a soul, Asriel felt happy.

* * *

Asriel healed within the month, around the same time the bracelets were finished and handed out to every monster in Ebott, everyone except sans.

It was almost Christmas. The cool breeze tore through Asriel's clothes, he went to summon a flame but then remembered.

It was snowing, Frisk, sans, Papyrus and some of the other monsters in Ebott gathered around Town Hall to build snowmen.

Toriel stood next to Asriel with a tray of what looked to be hot chocolate. She handed him one and put her big paw on his back, "It's alright, we can't use magic either." She chuckled and walked over to the others and handed them each a mug.

Frisk was building their snowman next to Lesser Dog, who was having trouble building theirs because of how excited he was getting. Frisk chuckled and walked over to him and began petting him. His neck grew.

"heh. you have friends everywhere don'tcha? this guy really _stuck his neck_ out for ya." Frisk grinned. "how'd he get like that anyway? nah nevermind i'm sure it's a _long_ story." Frisk started snickering but Lesser Dog didn't look amused. "i mean i've heard of tall tales but this is just silly." Frisk couldn't hold back their laughter but Lesser Dog trotted away next to Greater Dog.

"I think you barked up the wrong tree." Frisk replied and sans looked at the kid with pride. He couldn't help but think how lucky he was. To finally be free. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and found the stick figure drawing, it read " _don't forget." i won't,_ he thought to himself, and his grin grew more genuine.

[A/N: Thanks for sticking with me! This fanfic has calmed my Undertale boner and I think I can finally move on without listening to the soundtrack 24/7 or thinking about it every living moment.]


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